Thallus conspicuous, creamish-buff or dingy white or pinkish, or rusty brown-whitish, matt, slightly roughened, continuous, smooth, finely areolate-cracked, in parts ± eroded, areolae angular, plane 1-2 mm diam., in spreading patches, 2-6(-10) cm diam. Apothecia innate to sessile, solitary to 1-5(-10) crowded together, 0.1-1.5 mm diam., subconcave to plane to subconvex, rounded to angular-irregular through mutual pressure, undulate to ± irregular, disc pale to dark red-brown, epruinose or with a faint, white pruina in parts, margins entire to crenulate, concolorous with thallus. Epithecium granular, brownish, 5-7 µm thick. Hymenium colourless or pale straw-coloured, 50-60 µm tall. Paraphyses simple, dense, 1.5 µm thick, apices not capitate. Ascospores oval to ellipsoid 10-14 × 6-9 µm. Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow (r) red, KC+ red, Pd+ orange. Norstictic and salazinic (tr.) acids, atranorin and chloratranorin.