Thallus dispersed or areolate to chinky-diffract, uneven, from thin to 2.5 mm thick, sulphur-yellow, slightly shining; medulla white; hypothallus indistinct. Apothecia to 2 mm broad, at first immersed, becoming adnate, with base more or less constricted; margin colored as the thallus, or dark and bluish pruinose; disk convex, bluish lead-colored, thinly pruinose, KC+ red; hypothecium pale, of vertical hyphae, 1+ blue; epihymenium granulose-inspersed, olivaceous brown, HN03+ violet; hymenium hyaline, 70-80 μm, 1+ blue turning greenish; paraphyses slender, to 2 μm, tips slightly thickened, rarely branched; spores 8, ellipsoid to ovoid, 9-12 x 5-7 μm.

Reactions: cortex K+ yellow, C+ red, KC+ red; medulla K-, C-, KC-, I-.

Contents: atranorin, and an undetermined cause of the C+ reaction.

This species grows on acid rocks. It was described from Siberia and also occurs in the Okpilak River valley, north slope of Alaska.