They are 3-colplorate with a subtriangular amb, a small polar area, a long colpus, a lalongate endoaperture, a caveate exine and an echinate sexine.
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The aperture is oblong. The outer lip is incrassate, without 5-echinate, within obscurely denticulate. The sinus is fairly broad and conspicuous. The, columellar margin is straight and multiplicate.
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The remainder are longitudinally many-ribbed., These ribs are stout, angled, and echinate, crossed by many faint revolving lines. The body whorl is ten-ribbed. The aperture is oblong.
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The species is commonly known as the "spiny puffball" or the "spring puffball"; Peck referred to the species as the "echinate puff-ball". The specific epithet echinatum is derived from the Greek word echinos (εχινος) meaning "hedgehog" or "sea-urchin".
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Aggregate fruit globular, echinate, 6 – 8 mm in diameter. Achenes flat, subovately-cuneate, 3 x 1.5 mm with 3 - 5 (usually 3) lateral ribs and 2 - 3 oblong and further 3 - 5 small round glands. Stylar beak usually straight, approximately 0.75 mm.
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The specific name brasil is the Portuguese spelling of Brazil, the country's name being derived from the red coloured wood of the tree Caesalpinia echinate and so the name refers both to the country of its origin and to the red spots along this fish's body.
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The remainder are either few or closely ribbed, crossed by frequent or more distant lirations, acutely echinate at the points of junction, interstices appearing deeply seated, almost smooth, quadrate or oblong. The aperture is oblong. The outer lip is thin. The sinus is deep and wide, situated immediately below the suture.
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Sporangia are circinate (ring-shaped) and bear multicellular stalks. They diverge from a basal, vascular receptacle. The sporangia contain 64 trilete spores which bear sculpturing on their outer covering (perispore) ranging from irregular granulate or echinate to prominent rodlets. The annulus is nearly vertical and arranged in a single series.
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Leaf shape can range from lanceolate to ovate-oblong, 6 - 14.5 cm(2.4 - 5.7 in) long, 1.2 - 4.2 cm(0.5 - 1.7 in) wide, acuminate at apex, and acute or obtuse at base. They are green on the upside, grayish-white, glaucous or green and hairy beneath. The texture is coriaceous. Echinate-serrate on the edge.
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Bracts shorter or longer than the pedicels. Pedicels 1 - 2.5 cm long, sepals broadly ovate, ribbed, 4 – 6 mm long, petals white, corolla 3 – 4 cm in diameter. Stamens usually 24. Aggregate fruit globular, shortly echinate, achenes compressed, 3 mm long x 1 mm wide, having 3 - 5 ribs and 3 glands placed usually in one row, beak 0.4 - 0.5 mm long.
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The protoconch itself is globular, plain, the next beautifully but microscopically cancellate, the remainder longitudinally acutely costate, angled above. They are crossed by, in full-grown specimens, on the upper whorls, two, on the body whorl four, spiral raised ribs. The interstitial spacesare quadrate, smooth and acutely echinate at the points of junction. The number of the ribs on the body whorl is eleven to twelve.
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Corolla white, about 1.5 cm in diameter, stamens 12, achenes numerous in echinate head, nutlets grey-brown, 2.5 - 3.5 mm long x 1 - 1.3 mm wide, broadly keeled, with 2 winged ribs alternating with 3 non-winged ribs; facial gland single, close to the beak, indistinct or quite absent. Mature specimens may have between 10 - 30 leaves. most of them differing in shape and size.
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Except in the case of some submerged aquatic plants, the mature pollen grain has a double wall. The vegetative and generative cells are surrounded by a thin delicate wall of unaltered cellulose called the endospore or intine, and a tough resistant outer cuticularized wall composed largely of sporopollenin called the exospore or exine. The exine often bears spines or warts, or is variously sculptured, and the character of the markings is often of value for identifying genus, species, or even cultivar or individual. The spines may be less than a micron in length (spinulus, plural spinuli) referred to as spinulose (scabrate), or longer than a micron (echina, echinae) referred to as echinate.
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