[2] The botanist Leon Cienkowski was the first to observed organisms now assigned to Asterococcus, when he described the taxon Pleurococcus superbus in 1865.

[4] Asterococcus consists of colonies in powers of two (two, four, eight, 16, rarely up to 64), or occasionally single cells, embedded within a conspicuous, often layered mucilaginous envelope.

The cells are usually spherical to ellipsoidal and are either dispersed in the envelope or attached to the end of a branched (dendroid), mucilaginous stalk.

[2][1] Reproduction in Asterococcus occurs asexually by the formation of aplanospores or zoospores, of which two to eight are produced per cell.

[1] There are currently five recognized species within the genus:[4] Species identification in Asterococcus depends on morphological criteria such as the form of the colony (dendroid or not), characteristics of the cell wall, and whether the colonial envelope is lamellated or not.