Thallus fruticose, 7-15(-20) cm tall, attached to the substrate by a strong, rootlike holdfast. Branches terete, erect, usually fertile, branching irregular or subdichotomous, with numerous short, coralloid, phyllocladioid branchlets arranged in fasciculate groups. Surface of branches smooth, pale grey-green or whitish, often irregularly cracked. Cephalodia occurring with phyllocladial branchlets, small, cylindrical, containing a blue-green alga (). Apothecia terminal, common, subglobose to globose, mazaedium apical, globose, black. Asci cylindrical containing 8 spores in a row. Ascospores spherical to broadly ellipsoid, dark blue to dark brown.