The genus was circumscribed by Károly Kalchbrenner and Peter MacOwan in 1881.

The colour ranges from greyish-white to cream to pale yellowish.

[2] Lopharia has a dimitic hyphal system, meaning that it contains both generative and skeletal hyphae.

Basidia are club shaped with four sterigmata, and have a clamp at the base.

Spores are cylindrical to ellipsoid in shape with a smooth surface.