Hygrocybe chlorophana, also known as Golden Waxcap, is a small to medium-sized agaric with a bright lemon-yellow to orange-yellow cap, pale yellow waxy gills and a similarly coloured slender stem. The fruitbody does not blacken when bruised or with age. Hygrocybe chlorophana is most commonly found in old, unimproved, closely cropped grassland such as pastures, lawns, parkland and churchyards, although in some parts of its range it also occurs in woodland. It usually fruits from late summer through autumn.

Cap smooth and distinctly viscid or slimy in damp weather, initially convex or domed and later becoming broadly umbonate, flattened or nearly flat. It is bright lemon-yellow to golden yellow, sometimes with orange tones and occasionally reddish towards the centre. The cap flesh is thin and yellow. Gills waxy, broad and fairly distant, yellow at first and becoming paler lemon-yellow with age. They are adnate to narrowly attached to the stem. Stem smooth, slender and cylindrical, sometimes slightly compressed or grooved, and coloured similarly to the cap. It is moist to viscid when damp and has no ring. Spore print white.

Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal, sometimes slightly constricted or with one side concave, measuring about 7-9 x 4-5.5μm. They are smooth and inamyloid. The gill trama is regular, with long narrow elements, and the pileipellis forms an ixotrichoderm with gelatinised outer hyphae.

Hygrocybe chlorophana on the www.first-nature.com web site.
Hygrocybe flavescens on the MushroomExpert.Com web site.