Species are saprotrophs and occur on dead wood.

Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are ceraceous to gelatinous, often yellow to orange, and typically disc-shaped to cushion-shaped.

The genus has traditionally been differentiated from other genera in the Dacrymycetaceae on the basis of basidiocarp morphology, following (in recent years) the monograph of New Zealand mycologist Robert McNabb.

[3] Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has however shown that morphology is not a good indicator of natural relationships within the Dacrymycetaceae.

[4] As a result several species formerly referred to Dacrymyces have been moved to Dacryonaema[4] or Dendrodacrys.