Thallus fruticose, shrubby, erect, forming clumps 3-10 cm tall, loosely attached to the substrate and often dying below, pseudopodetia solid, brittle when dry, terricolous or muscicolous. Surface glossy, greyish-brown to brown or dark reddish-brown or blackened. Branches 1-2 mm thick, terete or partly deflated-angular, repeatedly branched, margins with small, thorny spines. Apothecia rare, terminal, concolorous with thallus, with subulate cilia on the thalline margin. Ascospores ellipsoid, minute, 5-9 × 3-4 µm. Chemistry: medulla K-, C-, KC-, Pd-. Rangiformic acid.