The fruit bodies are small, with silky fibers on the surface of grayish caps and thick, widely spaced gills.

Found primarily in temperate zones of Europe and North America, the fungus is widespread but not common.

Jean Baptiste Francois Pierre Bulliard first described the species as Agaricus parasiticus in 1791;[2] it was sanctioned under that name by Elias Magnus Fries in his 1822 Systema Mycologicum.

The flesh is thin, with a whitish to brownish color; it has an unpleasant odor and a farinaceous (mealy) taste.

They are whitish to grayish brown, often poorly developed, sometimes forked near the cap margin, and have edges covered with fine granules.

[10] Much of the life cycle of Asterophora parasitica was first elaborated in detail by German mycologist Julius Oscar Brefeld, who was able to germinate basidiospores and chlamydospores.