The fruit bodies of the ghost fungus can be found on dead or diseased wood. They may be first seen at night as a pale whitish glow at the base of trees in a eucalypt forest. The cap is very variable in colour, sometimes cream though often tinted with orange, brownish, greyish, purple or even bluish-black shades. The margin is lighter, generally cream, though brown forms have tan or brown edges. The centre generally has several darker shades, and younger specimens are often darker. Growing up to 30 cm in diameter it is funnel-shaped or fan-shaped in appearance with inrolled margins. The cream-white gills are decurrent and often drip with moisture. —ar 94:164