Members of the genus have roughly circular fruiting discs (apothecia) with rims that have photosynthetic tissue similar to that of the nonfruiting part of the lichen body (thallus).

[1] Other lichens with apothecia having margins made of thallus-like tissue are called lecanorine.

[3][4] Lecanora has a crustose thallus, trebouxioid photobiont, colourless ascospores and crystals in the amphothecium.

[5]: 680 Swiss lichenologist Rosmarie Honegger used electron microscopy in the late 1970s to investigate ascus structure in several major groups of lichen-forming fungi.

She defined the Lecanora-type ascus as one characterized by several distinctive features: (1) a non-amyloid, clear ascus wall that is encased in an amyloid outer layer often described as a fuzzy coat; (2) an amyloid dome filled with granular inclusions set within a clear matrix; (3) a clear central layer inside the dome; and (4) a method of opening, or dehiscence, that is rostrate (resembling the shape of a bird's beak – the ascus has a pointed or protruding tip from which the spores are released).