Silky Rosegill

The fruit bodies are initially enclosed by a universal veil. The caps are initially oval, becoming bell-shaped to convex, and sometimes nearly flat in old age; they measure 5–20 centimetres (2–8 inches) wide. The cap is white to yellowish, more pale at the margin, dry and covered with silky threads. The flesh is thin, soft, and white, and has an odor resembling raw potatoes. The gills are crowded close together, free from attachment to the stem, and initially white before turning pinkish as the spores mature. The stem is 6–20 cm (2+1⁄2–8 in) long and 1–3 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) thick, typically tapered upward or thickened below. It is white, smooth, and often slightly curved. The universal veil is membranous, often areolate (cracked into irregularly shaped blocks) or scaly, and forms a long, saclike volva that wraps around the base of the stem. It is white to yellowish or dingy brown, and often divided into lobes.

The variety V. bombycina var. flaviceps is distinguished from the main form by its smaller, bright yellow caps, up to 3.5 cm (1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, and its dirty-white, scaly volva. Murrill also noted that it developed a "peculiar sickening odor during drying". V. bombycina var. microspora has smaller spores (6–7.5 by 4–5 μm), a yellow cap, and a blotched brown volva. V. bombycina var. …

Volvariella bombycina is a saprobic species. Fruit bodies grow singly or in small groups on trunks and decayed stumps of dead hardwoods. Favored species include sugar maple, red maple, silver maple, magnolia, mango, beech, oak, and elm. It is often found in clefts and knotholes of dead or living tree trunks. It has been noted to fruit in the same location for several years. Despite its preference for hardwoods, it has been reported growing on rare instances on coniferous wood.

An uncommon species with a wide distribution, it has been reported from Europe, Asia (Iran, China, India, Korea, and Pakistan), North and South America, the Caribbean (Cuba), and Australia. It acquired protected status in Hungary in 2005, making it a legal offense to pick it. Variety microspora is known from Venezuela, while V. bombycina var. palmicola occurs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The fruit bodies are edible, and usually considered of good quality. They have been called "excellent", "tasty" with a "modest and pleasant flavor", and "worth eating if found in large enough quantities".

Alexander H. Smith related a story of how unique circumstances led to the development of a local superstition about the species:

... the members of a family here in Ann Arbor were poisoned, some fatally, as the result of eating caps of a species of Amanita. The next year Volvaria bombycina fruited on a maple tree at the home of these people, and the story was circulated that some of the spores of the poisonous fungus, which caused the deaths the year before, had escaped from the house, lodged in the tree, germinated, grew and were now producing fruiting bodies. Consequently the carpophores of the Volvaria were held in great awe by the neighbors, and soon came to be referred to as the "ghost mushroom". No one, of course, would consider eating them.