[1] The species was first described from Carniola (present-day Slovenia) in 1772 by naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli as Agaricus spadiceus.

The cap surface is smooth, dry, and radially fibrillose, brown and typically darker at the apex.

The stipe (stem) is smooth, somewhat fibrillose, yellow at first with brownish streaks when older, lacking a ring.

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

[1] Hygrocybe spadicea also appears on the official or provisional national red lists of threatened fungi in several European countries, including Croatia,[6] Czech Republic,[6] Denmark,[7] Estonia (where it is listed as "extinct"),[6] Finland,[6] Germany,[8] Great Britain,[9] Norway,[6] and Sweden.