Pileus: convex with an umbilicus; 30 - 45 mm diameter; glabrous, minutely squamulose at apex; pale olivaceous fawn with purplish brown squamules over the central 2/3rds of the cap; margin eroded and irregularly lobed.

Stipe: tapering; 20- 45 × 4–8mm; glabrous; pale fawn at apex becoming darker brown towards the base.

Gills: subdecurrent; moderately spaced, white; margins uneven/eroded; lamellulae in one series.

Flesh: white.

Spore print: white.

Spores: not recorded.

Notes: this Hygrophorus does not readily fit any of the species described by Horak or Young.