A distinctive species with a glutinous date-brown cap densely dotted with ochraceous squamules, waxy straw-yellow lamellae, and a dry ochraceous-fibrillose stipe lacking a cortina.

Cap: 15-30 mm, convex to umbonate. Date‑brown to umber‑brown. Strongly glutinous when wet. Covered with numerous small ochraceous squamules embedded in the slime. Not hygrophanous, not striate.
Lamellae: Waxy, stramineous (straw‑yellow) to ochraceous with age. Adnexed, ventricose. Edges concolorous, even.
Stipe: 35-55 x 3-4 mm, cylindric, equal or subfusoid. Whitish to brownish. Densely covered with dry ochraceous longitudinal fibrils, becoming squarrose toward the base.
Cortina: Absent, unusual for a Cortinarius and important diagnostically. Single, hollow.
Context: Brown throughout.
Odour/taste: Not distinctive.