Fruiting body usually a sessile or (less commonly) stalked sporangium but sometimes taking the form of a short plasmodiocarp. Stalk, when present, relatively stout. Hypothallus inconspicuous. Peridium varying from thin to thick, often becoming encrusted with a dark outer layer, sometimes clearly double. Pseudocapillitium lacking. Spores yellow-brown to reddish brown or almost black in mass, nearly colourless to smoky yellow, reddish grey or smoky grey or olivaceous by transmitted light, often paler on one side, nearly smooth or minutely warted or spiny.
The fruiting bodies produced by most species of Licea are rather small and usually go undetected in the field, although they commonly appear on bark and other substrates placed in moist chamber cultures. For some reason, Licea does not seem to be particularly common in New Zealand.
More than 50 species of Licea have been described worldwide (Lado 2001), but only nine of these are known from New Zealand.