Galerina mushrooms are typically small and hygrophanous, with a slender and brittle stem.

[4] The genus Galerina is defined as small mushrooms of mycenoid stature, that is, roughly similar in form to Mycena species: a small conical to bell-shaped cap, and gills attached to a long and slender cartilaginous stem.

[citation needed] Microscopically, they are highly variable as well, though most species have spores that are ornamented, lack a germ pore, and have a plage.

Ecologically, all Galerina are saprobic, growing in habitats like rotting wood or in moss.

In the wild it can be difficult to determine a Galerina from a number of similar genera, such as Pholiota, Tubaria, Conocybe, Pholiotina, Agrocybe, Gymnopilus, Phaeogalera and Psilocybe.

For the most part, Galerinas will be found associated with moss, and this can separate out the genus in nature fairly well.

But this identification is more difficult in the section Naucoriopsis, which does not associate with moss, and is a decomposer of wood.

[5] The great diversity of micromorphology found in Galerina is probably due to the polyphyly of the genus.

Galerina also present some risk of confusion with several species of small edible mushrooms, notably Kuehneromyces mutabilis[19] and candy caps (L. camphoratus and allies).