A small scarlet waxgill with a glutinous, conspicuously striate cap, glutinous stipe, and ventricose reddish-orange lamellae. The combination of scarlet colours, strong striation, and an ixocutis of gelatinised hyphae separates this taxon from all dry red Hygrocybe species. Cystidia absent.

Pileus: 5-20 mm diam., hemispherical to convex, becoming subumbonate; scarlet or tomato red; glutinous; conspicuously striated; glabrous.
Lamellae: adnexed to adnate; whitish-reddish when young, becoming reddish-orange; ventricose; edge concolorous.
Stipe: 10-35 x 1-2 mm, cylindric, equal; concolorous with pileus or reddish-orange; glutinous, glabrous; fistulose; single.
Context: red‑orange, yellowish toward stipe base.
Odour/tast: not distinctive.