English botanist Miles Joseph Berkeley described this species as a "blood red" mushroom, "clothed with a thick gelatinous coat" in 1845, from the writings and specimens of James Drummond, from the vicinity of the Swan River Colony in Western Australia.

John Burton Cleland described Cortinarius ruber in 1928 from a collection in Kinchina, South Australia.

[1] The fruitbodies of this fungus have hemispherical to convex brick- to brown-red caps, with diameters up to 5 cm (2.0 in) and covered with a layer of slime.

Initially light tan or clay-coloured, they deepen to rusty brown as the spores mature.

The mushroom has no particular taste or smell, and stains red-purple when potassium hydroxide is applied to it.