Primary thallus, small lobulate-papillate, evanescent. Pseudopodetia dying at base, corticate, glossy or matt, 0.5-15 cm tall, robust, slender, or filiform, densely branched, branching dichotomous often sympodial, spreading, erect or curving, sterile branches terminated by 1-3 (usually 2) blunt spines, pale, dark or reddish-brown to blackish or pale yellowish to straw-coloured or pale greenish, rigid, horny when dry, flaccid when wet, walls perforate, perforations round to elliptic, varying in number, fertile pseudopodetia much thicker and taller than sterile pseudopodetia, usually more perforate and more branched towards apex. Medulla thin, white, rarely farinose, Apothecia terminal on branches of erect, fertile pseudopodetia, lecideine, 0.15-0.4 mm diam., disc subconcave to plane, dull brownish-black to black, margins entire, flexuose, Ascospores 12-15 × 4-5 µm. Chemistry: Cortex K±, Pd, ±. Barbatic, fumarprotocetraric (±), norstictic (±) and stictic (±) acids.