[1] In 2022 the species was transferred from Cortinarius and reclassified as Thaxterogaster purpurascens based on genomic data.

The color varies from dirty brownish or brownish-rust to ocher or grayish bluish in the center.

The margin is fibrillose (covered with roughly parallel threadlike filaments), then smooth, with a violet or reddish-violet to grayish-brown tinge, then concolorous with the center of the cap.

The gills are thin and crowded closely together, broadly emarginate (notched), dark violet when young, with edges often slightly denticulate (finely toothed).

[9] The fruit bodies of Thaxterogaster purpurascens grow in groups in coniferous forests, mainly on more acid soils and are quite rare.