Cortinarius rubellus, commonly known as the Deadly Webcap, is a little to middle-sized mushroom that smells of radishes and is tawny-brown to reddish-orange with a pointed, umbonate cap covered with fibrils. The mushroom is mycorrhizal with conifer trees - pine and spruce in particular. It grows on damp acid soil, often fruiting in small groups.

Cap conical to convex (partly flattening at maturity but retaining a slight or sometimes pronounced umbo). In colour, it is a tawny to date brown with paler margins and often covered in fine, fibrous scales. The margin is often slightly rolled down even in fully mature specimens. Gills initially covered by a cobweb-like veil called cortina in young specimens, start as pale yellowish and turn rusty brown as the spores mature. They have an adnate or sometimes adnexed connection to the stipe. Stem often slightly bowed rather than straight, somewhat paler than the cap and usually retains fibres from the cortina, mottled with red. The flesh is cream or pale yellow, but more tan below the pileipellis and in the stem base. Spore print rusty reddish-brown.

Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal to sub-globose in shape, measuring approximately 9-12 µm in length and 6.5-8.5 µm in width. They have a rough surface.

Cortinarius rubellus on the www.first-nature.com web site.