Thallus foliose to fruticose, in small clumps, to 4 cm diam., and 0.5-2 cm tall, usually formed from single plants, corticolous. Lobes at first stellate-radiate, 0.5 mm wide, becoming erect, branched, rigid, dorsiventral, to 2.5 mm wide with spinous marginal fibrils, golden or orange-yellow above, especially at ends of lobes, matt or slightly shining, smooth or weakly longitudinally ridged, white or in part yellow below, longitudinally veined and wrinkled. Apothecia pedicellate, marginal or at ends of small laciniae, 1-6 mm wide, nearly plane, becoming convex with age, disc orange-yellow, margins thin, slightly elevated, with up to 150 concolorous fibrils, 0.5-2 mm long. Ascospores ellipsoid, 10-15 × 5-8 µm.