Hygrocybe splendidissima

The basidiocarps are agaricoid, up to 10 cm (4 in) tall, the cap conical to convex at first, retaining a broad umbo or becoming flat when expanded, up to 7 cm (2+3⁄4 in) across. The cap surface is smooth and dry, deep scarlet, paler when dry. The lamellae (gills) are waxy, cap-coloured or orange. The stipe (stem) is smooth, cap-coloured to orange, lacking a ring. The spore print is white, the spores (under a microscope) smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid, c. 7.5 to 9.0 by 4.5 to 5.5 μm. Fruit bodies have a distinct honey smell when rubbed or when drying.

Similar species. The species can normally be distinguished in the field, thanks to its size and colour. It was formerly confused with Hygrocybe punicea (the crimson waxcap), but fruitbodies of the latter species are a darker, duller red, have slightly viscid caps, and fibrillose stems. Fruit bodies of H. coccinea (scarlet waxcap) are typically much smaller and have slightly viscid caps that are nodulose under a lens. Both these species lack the distinctive smell of H. splendidissima, though the much smaller, orange-red H. reidii also has a honey smell.

The splendid waxcap is widespread but generally rare throughout Europe, with the largest populations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Like other waxcaps, it occurs in old, agriculturally unimproved, short-sward grassland (pastures and lawns). Recent research suggests waxcaps are neither mycorrhizal nor saprotrophic but may be associated with mosses.