The small, umbrella-shaped fruit bodies (mushrooms) of the fungus grow in grass or woodchips and are short-lived, usually collapsing with age in a few hours.

The caps are up to 6 cm (2.4 in) wide, initially elliptical before flattening out, and colored reddish-brown to greyish, depending on their age and hydration.

[3] According to the nomenclatural database MycoBank, Parasola hansenii, described by Jakob Emanuel Lange in 1915 and named in honor of Danish mycologist Emil Christian Hansen,[4] is a facultative synonym (based on a different type).

[8] In a 2010 study of the type material of several coprinoid taxa, Laszlo Nagy and colleagues assigned Patouillard's plate 453 (containing the original description) as the lectotype for P. auricoma, as they believed it to be "sufficiently diagnostic for a clear-cut definition of this taxon.

"[7] They also determined that Pseudocoprinus besseyi and Coprinus elongatipes (both species were described in a 1946 publication by Alexander H. Smith and Lexemuel Ray Hesler[9]) were conspecific with P. auricoma.

[11][12] Several molecular phylogenetics studies have confirmed its inclusion in the Parasola clade,[13][14][15] but its relationship to other members of the group have not been fully resolved due to limited sampling.

As the mushroom matures, the outer edge of the cap turn a greyish color while the center remains reddish brown.

[12] Young fruit bodies can have abundant, thick-walled hairs at the base of the stem, but these typically disappear as the mushroom matures.

The cap cuticle comprises a layer of club-shaped, thin-walled cells measuring 25–40 by 10–30 μm interspersed with long, dark, thick-walled setae.

The fruit bodies grow either singly or in groups, often in large numbers, at road sides in deciduous forests, or on grassy areas.