The fruit bodies (mushrooms) appear from midsummer to late autumn under conifers in North American and Eurasian mountain forests.

Other characteristic features include a slimy stem up to 12 cm (4+3⁄4 in) long that is spotted with ragged scales up to a ring-like zone.

Their caps are darkish brown grey, olive or orange, and their stems are nattered or somewhat distinctly ringed.

[19] The specific epithet olivaceoalbus is derived from the Latin words for olive-brown (olivaceus) and white (albus).

[12] The cap of H. olivaceoalbus is 3–12 cm (1+1⁄8–4+3⁄4 in) wide and is hemispherical in young fungi; they become flatter and wider with age, but they keep their characteristic dark umbo.

As the stem grows and increases in length, the interior layer becomes ripped, and breaks up into ragged dark concentric bands.

[22] When treated with a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or sulfuric acid, the flesh turns reddish.

[10] The cap cuticle has a width of 250 to 450 μm and consists of loopshaped, dark hyphae with a width from 2 to 3 μm, which form an ixocutis (a horizontal layer of hyphae embedded in slime) and possess clamp connections; the fungus has no hypocutis.

In the field, H. olivaceoalbus is distinguished by a combination of features including the double velum, the dark streaks on the slimy cap, the nattering of the stem, and growth under pines,[21] as well as by microscopic characteristics.

In the West Coast of the United States, associations are most common with Sitka spruces and giant redwoods.

[18] The range of H. olivaceoalbus stretches across the northern and western North America[22] as well as across Europe (except the Mediterranean region) and Russia.

[30] Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus finds a use especially in the kitchen, but the indistinct taste of the fruit bodies have received a mixed reception overall.

Kate Mitchel considers the waxy surface "unappetizing", while David Arora described the taste as "bland and slimy".

[33] Derivates of cyclopentenones, the so-called hygrophorones, can be obtained from the fruit body of H. olivaceoalbus; the fungus produces them as secondary metabolites.