One of two similar-looking species, the other is being A. nothofagi, this is recognised by a cap that has a background colour that is greyish fawn with dark greyish sepia squarish warts at the cap margin, arranged concentrically.

Cap: 20-60 mm wide, convex to plano-convex, shallowly depressed with age. Background colour greyish‑fawn, mouse-grey, greyish sepia, honey-buff, often darker at the disc. Surface viscid when young or wet, drying with age. Universal-veil remnants form flat, squarish warts, rarely pointed, dark greyish sepia to mouse‑grey, arranged concentrically. Margin entire, sometimes splitting with the pellis rolling back, giving a ragged appearance.
Gills: White, crowded, free, 3-6 mm wide. Short gills subtruncate.
Stipe: 38-80 mm tall x 5-8 mm thick, solid or tending to hollow. Surface above ring: white to pale smoke-grey, sparsely floccose or breaking into transverse striate bands. Below ring: white to smoke-grey or pale greyish sepia, smooth to finely scaled. Base marginate to marginate‑depressed, 7-21 mm wide, with a band or rim of dark greyish sepia to fuscous volva remnants.
Ring: Membranous, finely striate, white to sordid white, sometimes with a fuscous margin. Persistent.
Volva: Present as a rim or band of pulverulent, dark greyish sepia to fuscous material at the stipe base. On the cap, volval warts consist of globose to elliptic umber cells in short chains.
Flesh: White, sometimes pale greyish‑sepia to mouse-grey under the disc. Occasionally a faint grey line above the gills. Odour not distinctive.