[3] Plants of this species are white as a result of lacking chlorophyll, and their plastids do not differentiate into chloroplasts.

[4] Aneura mirabilis is a subterranean myco-heterotroph that obtains its nutrients from the abundant fungi growing among its tissues rather than from photosynthesis.

[7] Aneura mirabilis was first reported by M. Denis in 1919, who considered it simply as a form of A. pinguis lacking chlorophyll.

Apart from lacking chlorophyll, it is very similar to species in the genus Aneura, and the validity of recognizing Cryptothallus as a separate genus was questioned by Karen Renzaglia in 1982, who suggested it may be considered "merely as an achlorophyllous species of Aneura.

Other evolutionary lineages of myco-heterotrophic plants have been shown to have evolved from photosynthetic, mycorrhizal ancestors.