A tiny, pure orange to orange‑yellow waxgill with a dry, strongly striate cap and a slender, hollow stipe. The absence of any red tones and the lobate-sulcate mature margin help distinguish it from other small orange Hygrocybe.

Pileus: to 20 mm, hemispherical becoming obtusely conical or broadly campanulate; margin not upturned, often lobate–sulcate in mature specimens; brilliant orange to orange‑yellow, dry, hygrophanous, conspicuously striate when wet, smooth.
Lamellae: 6-10 (±1), broadly adnate to subdecurrent with short tooth; rather distant; pale orange‑yellow, becoming pale orange in age; edges entire, obtuse, concolorous.
Stipe: 15-30 x 1.5-2 mm, cylindrical, equal or gradually enlarged into pileus; orange‑yellow above, golden yellow below; dry, minutely fibrillose; fistulose‑hollow; single or caespitose.
Context: orange in pileus, yellow in stipe.
Odour/tast: not distinctive.