A large, bright scarlet to deep red-orange waxgill with a dry, fibrillose to minutely scaly cap whose squamules may lift and upturn. The distant orange lamellae, tall hollow stipe, and large amygdaliform spores make it one of the more robust Hygrocybe species.

Pileus: 5-50 mm, scarlet, deep red-orange or orange-luteous; hemispherical when young, later expanded with low umbilicus; fibrillose to minutely scaly, fibrils concolorous; squamules free and upturned or appressed; margin estriate; dry.
Lamellae: adnate to decurrent; red-orange to orange, paler at edges; distant.
Stipe: 15-70 x 3-6 mm, cylindric, equal or attenuated toward base; red-orange to orange, paler near base; smooth, dry, hollow.
Context: red-orange in pileus, yellow in stipe.
Odour/tast: not distinctive.