All Orientophila species occur in Northeast Asia including China, Japan, South Korea, and the Russian Far East.

The genus was circumscribed in 2013 by lichenologists Ulf Arup, Ulrik Søchting, and Patrik Frödén as part of a molecular phylogenetics-led major restructuring of the Teloschistaceae.

It was segregated from the large genus Caloplaca, which was shown by several prior studies to be polyphyletic.

The spores produced by this genus are polaridiblastic (typical for the family Teloschistaceae), and have a medium to long dividing line known as a septum.

Structures called pycnidia, which are involved in asexual reproduction, have not been observed in this genus.