Global occurrence: Eurasia – Europe | Americas – North America (incl Mexico) | Arctic.  Substrate: soil, clay, humus, turf, detritus, dead leaves.  Life habit: lichenized (mutualistic with algal photobionts).  Thallus: crustose (crustaceous) – endosubstratal, inconspicuous, immersed | crustose (crustaceous) – episubstratal – unspecified; [th marginal and upper surface] specific structures: absent.  Ascomata: absent | present; ascoma: apothecial, apothecioid – hymenial; ascoma [mm]: (median) 0.3 (max) 0.5; ascoma: sessile, superficial; [ascm, if apoth] disc, mazaedium: concave | plane, flat, flattened, expanded; [ascm, if apoth] disc, mazaedium: red(dish) | red(dish) brown (if pale: orange brown); [ascm, if apoth] margin surface; [if perith] periostiolar area, ostiole, involucrellum: white(ish).  Asci: lecanoralean; [asc] tholus: not thickened | thickened; [asc] tholus amyloidity (iodine reaction): present; [asc] tholus amyloidity pattern: with amyloid tube, ring (= Collema-, Micarea-, Porpidia-, Psora-types etc).  Primary photobiont: present, chlorophytaceous – trebouxiaceous, chlorococcoid.  Secondary photobionts (eg in cephalodia): absent.

Thallus scurfy-granulosc or sometimes varnish-like, pale greenish. Apothecia dispersed or grouped, small, 0.3-0.5 mm broad, sessile with narrow base; margin pale, thin, translucent; exciple of two layers, outer of 3-5 x 2-3 μm thin-walled irregular cells, inner of 1-1.5 μm parallel hyphae; disk pale flesh-colored or brown-reddish, flat or slightly concave; hypothecium 35-50 μm, gray, opaque; hymenium 120-200 μm, hyaline, upper part yellowish; paraphyses 1 μm, tips 2.5-3.5 μm, slightly branched above; asci 100-170 μm, cylindrical; spores numerous, 200, cylindrical, 5-8 x 2.5-3.5 μm, with 2 oil drops.

Reactions: K-, C-; hymenium and hypothccium 1+ blue.

This species grows on soil and over moss, sometimes on old wood. In Alaska it was found on moss and on an old caribou antler. It is known from Europe and North America. In the latter it has been reported from Illinois, New Jersey. Massachusetts, and Canada. It has recently been collected in Alaska by Marko Lewis on the Mauneluk River (WIS).