Thallus crustaceous, immersed, farinose, granular, verrucose or squamulose. Photobiont: , , or . Apothecia well-stalked, with a brown mazaedium. Capitulum spherical to obconical. Stalk and excipulum formed of dark brown or black, periclinally arranged, parallel hyphae. Excipulum ± well-developed. Asci dissolving at an early stage, cylindrical. Ascospores medium brown, spherical, ellipsoid or cylindrical, usually simple, rarely with 1-3(-5) septa, often with areolate to irregular ornamentation. Chemistry: Vulpinic acid often occurring as a prunia on the apothecia and in one species, in the thallus.