Typical characteristics include a fine-scaled bell-shaped cap, a partial veil, and a tendency to bruise a yellow to brown when handled.

Sowerby's observations of this species were made in bark beds around London where he described its presence as 'not uncommon'.

[2] Leucocoprinus species are not native to England but were introduced to greenhouses when tropical plants were brought back by explorers.

However he also considered that the yellow Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, then known as Agaricus luteus was 'undoubtedly the same species', only differing in colour.

During this period exotic plants from the East Indies and India were being cultivated in greenhouses and stove-heated hothouses at Wormleybury making it likely that this is where the mushrooms were found.

In 1871 the German botanist Otto Kuntze classified the species as Lepiota cepaestipes in his book titled 'Der Führer in die Pilzkunde' or 'The Guide to Mycology'.

[10] In the same year the British mycologists Miles Joseph Berkeley & Christopher Edmund Broome wrote of L. cepaestipes specimens found amongst decayed herbs.

[12] The specimens studied were collected in March and April 1889 from the Caribbean island of Martinique having been found on an old rotten coconut tree trunk.

[13] In 1883 the English botanist and mycologist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke produced illustrations of Agaricus (Lepiota) cepaestipes in his book entitled 'Illustrations of British Fungi'.

Bulbous when immature becoming convex with a pronounced umbo which may be darker in the centre against the white colour of the rest of the cap.

[15] A more detailed description is provided in Flora Agaricina Neerlandica and notes a larger spore size: Cap: 3–6.5 cm wide when expanded.

Stem: 3–13 cm long and 2.5-5mm thick becoming wider at the base and tapering upwards with a hollow interior.

The surface has a dense, fine pubescent coating all over and is white when immature becoming cream to brownish-cream coloured with age.

The ascending stem ring is white when young with yellow exudation and some thick scales at the margin similar to those of the cap however it is evanescent and may disappear.

Flesh: White in the cap and stem of young specimens, cream coloured with age.

[16] This form was described by the Italian mycologist Vincenzo Migliozzi in 1986 after specimens were found growing in flower pots in Rome, Italy during July and August 1985.

The centre disc has a cream-brown colour at all stages but does not develop to become distinctly umbonate and remains mostly flat.

Stem: Up to 8 cm tall and 3-5mm thick with a wider, somewhat club shaped base and hollow interior.

Clear guttation can be present on the stem above the ring or on the immature gills but was not observed simultaneously on both.

Dextrinoid, metachromatic in Cresyl blue, single vacuole visible inside spore in water.

If the mushroom dries in situ the gills discolour to dirty white or a light yellow whereas if the mushroom is picked, especially when immature and left to dry elsewhere, the gills develop a slightly pinkish or pinkish brown colour eventually discolouring to brownish.

[19] The specimens studied by Panizzi were found growing on tanbark and were described as differing from Agaricus cepaestipes (now Leucocoprinus cepistipes) due to the convex cup shaped cap that only rarely flattened when mature and smaller central disc.

Also noting the ochra colour of the mature stem with a pink shade to the upper portion and stating that it was only just thicker than a writing pen so seemed to be hardly able to support the cap.

[20] Babos described it in more detail from specimens found growing in sawdust around several sawdust plants in Hungary: Cap: 2–7 cm wide, campanulate and expanding with age but often deforming due to the dense caespitose growth.

The surface is covered with scales (squamules) which are white or tinted the same colour as the centre of the cap.

Stem: 3–16 cm long and 2-7mm thick, curved and with a thicker clavate base white where rhizoids may be present.

They are white when young but discolour to a dirty rose colour to pale olive-green, greyish-green or brownish.

Cheilocystidia: (30) 40–62 x (7.8) 11–16 (−18)[18] This species has commonly been described from greenhouses and hothouses and is especially noted for growing in bark beds.

In 1867 the Belgian botanist Jean Kickx documented Agaricus cepaestipes growing in tanbark in the greenhouses of the Ghent Botanical garden during the Summer.

This is a reference to the bulbous base of Leucocoprinus species which may look reminiscent to the bulb of a small onion.