All members of the family have a symbiotic association with green alga and the majority of Parmeliaceae species have foloiose.

The morphological diversity is enormous within this group and the specimen are difficult to identify in its species level.

There are a range of habitats and climatic regions within this family and it includes tropical rainforest trees to subshrubs in Arctic tundra.

This is a reference to the noticeably spongy thallus exhibited by species in this genus.

“Arne Thell, Ana Crespo, Pradeep K. Divakar, Ingvar Kärnefelt, Steven D. Leavitt, H. Thorsten Lumbsch, Mark R. D. Seaward” A review of the lichen family Parmeliaceae – history, phylogeny and current taxonomy.