The platterful mushroom has a brown-gray cap 2 to 5 inches wide. Bellshaped at first, it becomes convex, the flat to sunken in the center. The wavy margin is streaked with dark radial fibers.

The broad, white, widely-spaced gills, which erode with age, attach to the stalk. The spore print is white.

The thick, white stalk is 3 to 5 inches long, 3/8 to 3/4 inches thick. Solid when young, then hollow, it's so fibrous you can strip the fibers vertically.

Very common throughout eastern North America and rare on the West Coast, it grows on logs, stumps, wood chips, and buried wood from spring to early fall.

Although nonpoisonous, it has no flavor and isn't worth collecting.