Summary:
Features include small size, a slimy cap that is scarlet to orange red with a yellow margin, adnexed to subdecurrent, close to subdistant gills that are orange to orange buff to yellow, and a slimy stem that is red at first with a yellow base. This taxon is included in Section Hygrocybe by Hesler(1) and would likely not fall under Hygrophorus in modern nomenclature. Hygrocybe minutula (J.E. Lange ex S. Lundell) M.M. Moser is however based on Hygrophorus minutulus J.E. Lange ex S. Lundell rather than Hygrophorus minutulus Peck. The current name in the online Species Fungorum, accessed on January 23, 2016, was Hygrocybe minutula (Peck) Murrill [as ''Hydrocybe''].

Cap:
0.5-1.5cm across, convex, then broadly convex to flat, the disc not depressed; hygrophanous, "scarlet", "flame scarlet", to "Mars orange", fading to "antimony yellow"; distinctly viscid or glutinous, striatulate when fresh^, (Hesler), 0.8-1.7cm, convex, broadly convex, broadly parabolic, or flat-convex, margin incurved; non-hygrophanous, bright red when young, when old remaining bright red on disc and becoming yellowish on margin, eventually fading to reddish orange on disc and orangish to orangish yellow on margin; bald, viscid to lubricous, (Largent)

Flesh:
thin, fragile; colored as cap surface^, (Hesler), 0.15-0.2cm thick on disc, colored as cap surface, (Largent)

Gills:
adnate to adnexed or with decurrent tooth, close to subdistant, broad and somewhat ventricose [broader in middle]; "orange buff" to "bittersweet orange"; edges even, (Hesler), subdecurrent, subdistant, narrow to moderately broad, 0.5-0.8cm broad; ''yellowish when young, becoming orangish from the cap downward''; edge smooth and lighter than the face, (Largent)

Stem:
1.5-5cm x 0.1-0.3cm, equal or narrowing downward, fragile, stuffed becoming hollow; at first red in upper part, yellowish or whitish in lower part, fading to yellow over all when old; glutinous or viscid, (Hesler), 3-4.5cm x 0.15-0.3cm at top, equal, usually flexuous [wavy], round in cross-section; at first entirely bright red, remaining so at top but becoming yellowish at base, eventually yellowish to yellowish orange to pale reddish orange overall; viscid, shiny, bald, basal mycelium absent, (Largent)

Veil:
[presumably absent]

Odor:
mild (Hesler)

Taste:
mild (Hesler)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7-10.3 x 4-5(6) microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored, 30-45 x 5-8 microns; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia absent; gill tissue parallel to subparallel; clamp connections present on cuticular hyphae, (Hesler), spores 7-8.5 x 3-4 microns, narrowly elliptic, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored 40.5-52.8 x 5.1-7.1 microns; cap cuticle an ixotrichodermium, 150-250 microns thick, terminal elements 32.0-73.8 x 1.85-7.4 microns, cylindric to somewhat cylindro-clavate, clamp connections on basidia, cap cuticle, stem cuticle, (Largent)

Spore deposit:
white (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)

Notes:
Hesler(1) examined collections from OR, NS, AL, MA, MI, MT, NC, NY, TN, and TX, and noted a report from Japan. Largent(4) gives it for CA and Schalkwijk-Barendsen for western AB. There is a collection by O. Ceska from BC at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Gliophorus minutulus (Peck) Kovalenko
Hygrophorus minutulus Peck