C. fulva are commonly noted as being about two inches in diameter and smaller than C. capillata, however, larger than C. versicolor, a co-occurring close species.

One distinctive feature present in mature C. fulva populations is their four mouth-part tentacles, containing a cinnamon color with the center of the main cavity being darker.

At a young age, these jellyfish can have three appendages but often gain a fourth at more developed life cycle stages.

The euryteles were found to have a larger average length compared to Aurelia aurita, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, and Rhopilema verrilli populations.

These tentacles have a general tinge of cinnamon color, are darker in the center of the main cavity, and are much lighter along the margin of the disk.

[4] Their distribution differs with latitude but C. fulva populations are particularly common south of Cape Cod and in the Long Island Sound.

[4] One study tested the responses of aquatic invertebrates such as the jellyfish C. fulva to declining oxygen conditions.

[11] The 𝛼-isorhizas were found to be concentrated in the oral region of the scyphistoma and did not become equally distributed among the ephyrae produced by the given strobila.

The euryteles were found to have a larger average length of 10.1-12.7μm compared to Aurelia aurita, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, and Rhopilema verrilli populations.

Originally, Stiasny (1919) believed that species such as C. fulva served as color variants of C. capillata for nearly a century.