Thallus fruticose, 7-15(-20) cm tall, attached to the substrate by a thick holdfast of brown branching rhizoids. Main branches terete, 2-6 mm thick, with terminal branchlets 1-1.5 mm in diam., branching irregular to subdichotomous, with numerous short, coralloid phyllocladial branchlets occurring in fasciculate groups. Surface of branches smooth, greenish-grey to whitish, transversely annulate-cracked. Cephalodia grey-blue, sparse to frequent, occurring with phyllocladial branchlets, small, cylindrical, to 5 mm long and 1.5-4 mm wide. Algal layer ± continuous, 40-60 µm thick, surrounding central medulla, photobiont , spherical, 10-12 µm diam. Apothecia terminal, subglobose to globose 1.5-44 mm diam., mazaedium apical, exposed at an early stage of development by rupture of the enclosing receptacle, when mature black, partially surrounded by receptacle. Asci cylindrical. Ascospores spherical to broadly ellipsoid, dark blue to dark brownish, 8-12 µm diam. Chemistry: K-, C-, KC-, Pd-. Sphaerophorin.