Characterized by their bright orange caps and stalks and reddish-orange gill edges, they usually grow in dense clusters on deciduous logs.

The species was named after Thomas Gibson Lea (1785–1844), a mushroom collector from Ohio who had sent a collection of specimens to Berkeley for identification.

[3][4] The hygrophanous cap is 1 to 4 centimetres (0.39 to 1.57 in) in diameter, and initially rounded or bell-shaped but becoming expanded and convex with age, often with a depression in the center.

The deepening in color at the edges is due to an orange pigment that is contained largely within cells called cheilocystidia.

However, M. leaiana had been found primarily in the east of the United States (and specifically not on the Pacific coast at all) upon the discovery of specimens in Australia.

[1] Mycena leaiana is a common species, and grows in dense cespitose clusters (with stipes sharing a single point of origin) on hardwood logs and branches.

[2] Mycena leaiana produces the orange pigment leainafulvene, a member of the class of chemical compounds known as isoilludanes.