It contains four species of crustose lichens that typically grow on soil, bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), or plant litter on chalky substrates.
Arcadia & A.Nordin against M. verrucosa Hafellner & V.Wirth due to taxonomic confusion stemming from historical errors in the original basionym citation.
The true exciple, or the outer layer surrounding the apothecia, is thin and either colourless or pale straw-coloured, consisting of tightly packed, vertically aligned hyphae (fungal filaments).
The hamathecium, which contains the paraphyses (sterile filaments among the asci), is richly branched and interconnected (anastomosing) without swollen tips, and is strongly conglutinated (stuck together).
The ascospores are large, aseptate (without internal divisions), globose (spherical) to shortly ellipsoidal, colourless, and have uniformly thickened walls.
[5] Megaspora lichens typically grow on soil, bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), or plant litter on calcareous (chalky) substrates.