A medium‑sized, green‑olive to yellow‑ochre, strongly glutinous cortinarius, distinguished by its black‑olive to grey‑green umbo, viscid pileus, pale yellow to apricot lamellae, fusoid to clavate stipe, and rust‑brown, coarsely warted spores. The species shows distinctive olive‑grey pigmentation beneath the pileus cuticle and red–red‑brown KOH reactions, making it one of the more chemically and chromatically distinctive NZ cortinarii.

Cap: Up to 60 mm diam.; hemispherical to convex to broadly umbonate or obtusely campanulate, finally depressed around the umbo. Margin distinctly inrolled when young. Centre black‑olive, pale fuliginous‑green, or grey‑green, fading toward the margin to ochre‑yellow or golden yellow. Surface glutinous to viscid, remaining sticky; occasionally radially wrinkled. Margin striate in older fruitbodies.
Lamellae: 20-30 primary lamellae, with up to 7 tiers of lamellulae. Attachment adnate to broadly emarginate, sometimes subdecurrent with a tooth. Width up to 7 mm. Colour pale yellow to apricot, never with green‑olive tints; becoming yellow rust‑brown with age. Edges concolorous, entire to serrulate.
Stipe: Up to 100 x 8-15 mm; fusoid, subbulbous, or clavate at base, rarely cylindrical; solitary or cespitose. Colour pale yellow, sometimes with a pale grey‑olive sheen. Surface glutinous to viscid from base to the subpersistent fibrillose or agglutinated cortina; apex dry. Occasionally with yellow rhizoids at the base. Solid when young, becoming hollow.
Veil: No conspicuous veil remnants.
Context: Pale yellow, bruising brown. Beneath pileus cuticle: distinct olive‑grey layer.
Odour/taste: Acidulous to weakly raphanoid.