Fruiting body usually a stalked or sessile sporangium, but sometimes a plasmodiocarp, aethalium, or pseudoaethalium is produced. Stalk[ital], when present, short and stout to slender and relatively long. Hypothallus inconspicuous to conspicuous and contiguous for a group of fruiting bodies. Peridium a single layer or in some species consisting of two or three layers, membranous to cartilaginous, the outermost layer usually calcareous, the lime present either granular or crystalline. Columella present or absent. Capillitium typically limeless, thread like, purple brown to pallid. Spores dark in mass.
Six genera are recognised for the family Didymiaceae, and five of these occur in New Zealand