His description of the family mentioned the obscure brown thallus resembling algae, with an overall morphology described as either filamentous or tufted (fruticose).

[1] First informally proposed by Antonín Vězda in 1974, then formally published in 1984 by Josef Hafellner,[8] the family Harpidiaceae contains the genera Harpidium and Euopsis.

[11] The thalli of Lichinaceae species are known to occur in a variety of forms, including gelatinous, crustose, peltate, filamentous to microfoliose or microfruticose, ecorticate (lacking a cortex) and homoiomerous or stratified and very rarely eucorticate (i.e., comprising well-differentiated hyphae).

The hamathecium (the hyphae or other tissues between the asci) consist of unbranched to branched paraphyses, amyloid or non-amyloid.

[13] The genus Lichinodium, formerly placed in Lichinaceae, was placed in its own family (Lichinodiaceae) and order (Lichinodiales) in the class Leotiomycetes.