The specific epithet refers to Lactarius quietus, an unrelated agaric which has the same distinctive smell as Hygrocybe quieta.

The cap surface is smooth, dry to slightly greasy when damp, bright yellow to orange-yellow becoming duller with age and sometimes developing a greyish sheen.

[6] Several other waxcaps are similarly coloured, but the widely spaced, orange gills of Hygrocybe quieta are distinctive and the oily smell is diagnostic.

[9] Hygrocybe quieta is typical of waxcap grasslands, a declining habitat due to changing agricultural practices.

The oily waxcap appears on the official or provisional national red lists of threatened fungi in several European countries, including Denmark,[10] Germany (Bavaria),[11] Poland,[12] and Switzerland.