The type locality is 3 km (1.9 mi) southwest of the village Omalos, between the mountains Mávri Kimite and Tourli, at an elevation of 1,125 m (3,691 ft).

There, the first author found the lichen growing on the bark of Turkish pine (Pinus brutia), near the base of tree.

Subsequent molecular phylogenetic analysis confirmed its placement in that genus, as the second species of Elixia, and only the third member of family Elixiaceae.

[1] The brownish to greenish thallus of Elixia cretica is crustose, areolate, and thin (less than 50 μm thick); it lacks both soredia and isidia.

The ascomata of the lichen are in the shape of a lirella (an elongated, narrow apothecium) (lirelloid), measuring 0.5–1.4 mm in diameter with a black margin.