A small waxgill with a deep to sooty‑brown fibrillose cap and golden‑yellow, unchanging gills, plus a yellow, hollow stipe. The dark, densely fibrillose pileus and bright yellow lamellae make it distinctive among New Zealand Hygrocybe.

Pileus: 10-25 mm, hemispherical when young, becoming convex to flat, sometimes with an indistinct umbo; deep brown to sooty brown, yellow toward the often splitting, unstriated margin; densely covered with concolorous, radial fibrils; viscid when wet.
Lamellae: emarginate‑adnexed, decurrent with short tooth; ventricose; golden yellow, unchanging; edge even or slightly undulated.
Stipe: 20-35 x 1.5-3 mm, equal, single or clustered; golden yellow, paler toward base; dry, glabrous, fistulose.
Context: deep yellow, brown beneath the cuticle, unchanging.
Odour/tast: not distinctive.