The species are saprotrophic, occurring in attached or recently fallen dead wood, and produce gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies).

The genus Exidia was separated from Tremella by Fries in 1822, based mainly on fruit body shape.

Exidia fruit bodies are gelatinous, most having a distinct spore-bearing upper surface and a sterile undersurface.

These surfaces are either smooth or (in some species) covered in dense or scattered sterile pegs or pimples.

The basidia are tremelloid (ellipsoid and vertically septate), giving rise to long, sinuous sterigmata or epibasidia on which the basidiospores are produced.