The genus was circumscribed in 2017 by the lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk, Dalip Kumar Upreti, and Jae-Seoun Hur, with Oxneriopsis oxneri assigned as the type species.

[2] Oxneriopsis features crustose lichens with a thallus that can be continuous, cracked, or divided into small, isolated units (areoles).

Often, this thallus forms vegetative reproductive structures (propagules), known as phyllidia or schizidia, which are typically bright yellow or greenish-yellow, contrasting with the greyish or greenish-grey background of the main thallus.

[2] Their fruiting bodies (apothecia) vary from lecanorine (with a thalline margin) to zeorine (without a thalline margin), and exhibit a range of colours from yellow and orange-brown to dark brown or even blackish brown.

Each ascus typically contains eight spores that are polarilocular (having two distinct chambers) and hyaline (translucent).