The stout fruit bodies (mushrooms) have moist white to grayish caps (later becoming grayish-brown with age), a membranous ring on the stipe, and an odor resembling cucumbers.

Mycorrhizal with conifers, the fungus fruits in the spring or early summer, with its mushrooms appearing on the ground singly or in groups at high elevations, often at the edge of melting snowbanks.

Thiers and Sundberg classified it in the section Ponderosa of genus Armillaria due to its inamyloid spores, but noted that its relationship to other species was unclear.

The name Tricholoma olida was unavailable for this species, because it was previously used in 1920 by Josef Velenovský,[3] so Kris Shanks proposed the new name T. vernaticum.

As the mushroom ages, the cap color changes from white to fuscous (dusky brownish grey) or brown, usually with olive, grayish or pale tan regions.

[2] When collected in its typical habitat and during the appropriate season, Tricholoma vernaticum mushrooms can be readily identified because of their prominent characteristics: white color, stocky fruit body, farinaceous odor, and ring on the stipe.

Other lookalikes include Hygrophorus subalpinus and H. camarophyllus, but these species have broad, waxy gills, and lack the characteristic odor of T. vernaticum.

[7] Fruit bodies of Tricholoma vernaticum grow singly or in groups under conifers in late spring and early summer.