The fungus produces yellow mushrooms that have a characteristic sharp umbo on the top of a conical cap.

The species was originally described by Miles Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1859 as Agaricus murrayi, based on collections made in New England.

[5] Synonyms include combinations resulting from generic transfers to Rhodophyllus by Rolf Singer in 1942,[6] Noleana by R. W. G. Dennis in 1970,[7] and to Inocephalus by Gordon Rutter and Roy Watling in 1997.

In a large-scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of Agaricales species published in 2002, E. murrayi grouped in a clade together with E. canescens and two Entolomas traditionally classified in Inocephalus – E. quadrata and E. lactifluus.

[10] The specific epithet murrayi honors the original collector, Dennis Murray of Massachusetts.

[3] The cap and gill tissue contain "repository hyphae" (storage units containing byproducts of metabolism) that release a watery, yellow-colored liquid when injured.

[15] Characteristic diagnostic features of Entoloma murrayi include the bright yellow coloring, the conical cap, cube-shaped spores, and club-shaped cheilocystidia.

The South American species E. dennisii, originally misidentified as E. murrayi, can be distinguished from the latter by its less conical cap and considerably smaller spores that measure 5.5–7 μm.

Fruit bodies are found in wet coniferous and deciduous forests, where they grow singly or in small groups on the ground in litterfall or humus, or in moss.