Members of this order are primarily saprotrophic fungi found on wood, though some are rarely parasitic.

Their ascomata (fruiting bodies) are rounded and range from immersed-erumpent to sessile, with a chroodiscoid to biatorine form, and are often carbonised.

The asci possess an apically thickened tholus that is either iodine-negative (I-) or weakly iodine-positive (I+ bluish), with a small and narrow ocular chamber.

Its recognition at the ordinal level is primarily due to its topological position in phylogenetic trees, rather than the temporal banding approach.

They also differ from Ostropales in the strict sense, which are largely non-lichenised or facultatively lichenised and typically have erumpent ascomata.