Cap: 2-5 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex, nearly flat, or broadly bell-shaped; slimy when fresh; yellow to orangish yellow or nearly orange; the margin usually paler; bald.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close; whitish to yellowish white at first, becoming cinnamon to rusty brown.

Stem: 3-7 cm long; up to about 1 cm thick; usually with a somewhat swollen basal bulb, at least when young; white; covered with a glutinous slime veil when fresh and young, but soon more or less dry, or slimy only at the base; often with rusty fibrils or a faint ring zone.

Flesh: Whitish.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive, or slightly foul. Taste extremely bitter.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: Rusty brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-7.5 × 4-5 µ; ellipsoid; very slightly verrucose (appearing almost smooth). Pleuro- and cheilocystidia absent. Pileipellis an ixocutis of clamped, hyaline to ochraceous elements.