Fruiting body a sessile (or less commonly stalked) sporangium or plasmodiocarp. Stalk, when present, either thick and furrowed or representing an extension of the hypothallus. Hypothallus membranous to thick and spongy. Peridium single or double, thickly membranous to cartilaginous, covered with crystalline lime scales, the individual scales separate and distinct or united laterally to form a nearly or completely continuous crust. Columella absent or large and usually hemispherical. Capillitium consisting of branching and anastomosing threads, these typically limeless or in one species containing large and expanded lime nodes. Spores purple brown to black.
Eight species of Lepidoderma have been described. A key to many of these is provided by Kowalski (1971). Three species have been recorded from New Zealand.