[2] Maria Prieto and Mats Wedin transferred it to the genus Calicium in 2016 following a molecular phylogenetics study of the Caliciaceae-Physciaceae clade.

[3] Calicium pinicola has a yellowish-green, warty (verrucose) thallus that is quite thin and sometimes partially immersed in the substrate.

[2] Calicium pinicola contains rhizocarpic acid, a lichen product that presents as small yellow crystals in the cortex).

[2] Calicium pinicola grows on decorticated wood, particularly that of Pinus sylvestris, but it has also been recorded on Betula and Larix.

[5] Other countries from which it has been reported include Austria, Macedonia, the United States, Turkey,[6] and Kandalaksha in Arctic Russia.