The small fruit bodies bear a distinctive smell of coal gas and appear in autumn on damp ground.

The stipe is comparatively long (up to 6 cm), slender and bare, tinged lilac or violet except for the uppermost section where it is pallid.

[2][3] Cystolepiota bucknallii has a characteristically pungent odour, reminiscent of coal gas or sulphur.

[2][3] C. bucknallii has been recorded in various countries in central and northern Europe including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Russia.

[5] It is a terrestrial decomposer which occurs in deciduous forests with moist, calcareous soils rich in nutrients and especially nitrogen.