The species has sexual fruiting bodies that are ornamented with characteristic, coiled hairs giving it a wooly appearance.

[1] This examination allowed Chivers to provide his preliminary diagnosis of C. subspirale along with a number of other species within Chaetomium.

[4] Colonies of C. subspirale have an appearance of brown due to the erect, verrucose mycelial hairs.

[3] In reflected light, they give a grey appearance with a brown wall of flattened, angular (7-12 μm) cells.

A few species that C. subspirale is similar to include C. homopilatum, C. ampullare, C. sphaerale, C. pulchellum, and C. semispirale.

[3] C. ampullare and C. sphaerale are easily distinguished from C. subspirale due to the larger ascospores and ascomata of C.

[4] Different ascospore sizes and colony morphology on Leonian's and Czapek's media help to differentiate C. subspirale from C.

[6] Significant research has revealed a large number of natural products derived from fungi that have potential for anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties for human cancer cells.

Rether et al. used a cell-based screening system to identify a low molecular weight compounds inhibitory to the induction of TNF-an expression from a large panel of mycelial cultures of basidiomycetes, ascomycetes.

Rether et al. found that oxaspirodion derived from C. subspirale inhibited the expression of a TNF-a-driven luciferase reporter gene.

Oxaspirodion inhibits the activation of the transcription factor NF-kappaB, leading to interest in its potential as an anticancer therapeutic.