Cap 15-45 mm, dry, weakly or not hygrophanous; golden yellow, young yellow-brown which persists at the centre; finely innate fibrillose to finely granulose-squamulose, margin not striate. Gills pure yellow to citrinous. Stipe cylindrical to clavate; pale yellow with a few brownish-yellow fibres near base, apex paler. Veil dark yellow to brownish-yellow, sparse; cortina pale yellow. Flesh pure yellow; odour agaricoid to faintly raphanoid; taste nil. Reactions: NaOH blood red on cutis and gills, red to vinaceous on stipital veil, weaker red to orange in context; guayac nil; fluorescence nil. Micro: spores elliptic to amygdaloid, 8-10  4.5-5.5 µm, moderately and rather sparsely verrucose.

in Nothofagus forest, fairly common.

A beautifully golden-yellow dermocyboid fungus, considerably smaller than the more common C. canarius. Cf. Pholiota chrysmoides. C. icterinoides is similar but smaller and paler with a weaker alkaline reaction. As shown by molecular studies, the two species are closely related but distinct.