A small mushroom, up to an inch tall, usually in clusters, sometimes by the hundreds on dead or buried wood, especially at bases of stumps. White to cream and oval when young (at left), expanding to bell-shaped and turning gray, with a blush of cream on top (at right). Cap with deep furrows running from the margin to nearly the center, and usually finely hairy. Gills dark, becoming black when mature. Spores black (the black individual in the picture at right is probably covered with spores from the one above it). The entire mushroom is very delicate and easily crumpled.

Although related to other mushrooms where the gills liquefy once the spores are mature (for example the Alcohol Inky, Coprinopsis atramentaria), this species does not liquefy. Hence the common name of "non-inky."