The genus was circumscribed in 2011 by lichenologists Damien Ertz and Anders Tehler, as part of a molecular phylogenetic-based restructuring of the order Arthoniales.

[3] However, these species deviate from the type of that genus due to the presence of rounded to ellipsoid ascomata, which are often covered in white pruina, and a hyaline or pale hypothecium.

[4] The thallus of Fulvophyton is crustose and lacks a cortex; it often has an algal-free zone formed by interwoven hyphae.

The ascomata are punctiform or shortly lirellate, and immersed in the thallus, ranging from 0.05 to 0.6 by 0.05–0.3 mm in size.

They exhibit a macrocephalic ascospores septation pattern, measuring 20–50 by 5–9 μm, and are surrounded by a distinct gelatinous sheath.