[1][2][3] Historically they were included in the genus Bufo and then for a few years placed in Pseudepidalea, which is a synonym of the currently accepted name Bufotes.

[4] Bufotes are typical toads and as suggested by their common names most—but not all— species and individuals have a distinct greenish-spotted pattern.

The B. surdus subgroup consists of a couple of Asian species with smaller parotoid glands and a tiny or no tympanum,[8][10][11] and they are sometimes called earless toads.

[1][12] Most Bufotes species, including all in mainland Europe, have upperparts that are pale to medium brownish, brownish-olive, greyish or cream and with a usually conspicuous pattern of irregularly shaped darker spots that are green or greenish-olive in colour.

The spots vary considerably depending on individual; in some they are fairly small and in others they are large; they can be connected, sometimes forming a marbled pattern, or so dense that the toad appears almost all greenish or olive above.

[5][9][10][13] Depending on species and individual, they can have a thin light yellowish vertebral line, an orangish tinge to the head or fine reddish-orange dots above.

[5][7][20] When the weather is warm and dry, they regularly visit places with water or retreat to damp, hidden locations.

In the most arid regions, they are usually restricted to areas near water sources like oases and river valleys, and they may aestivate during the driest periods (in contrast to northern populations that hibernate in winter).

[2][10] Depending on species, a female can lay from a few hundred to a few tens of thousands black eggs, which are in a long single or double gelatinous and transparent string.

[2][7][11][13] They can be deposited in many types of permanent or temporary waters like lakes, ponds, puddles, swamps, rivers, streams, torrents, reservoirs and ditches, but usually in places no more than 50 cm (1.6 ft) deep.

Despite differences in ploidy, hybridisation is still possible between some of them, and the three triploids and two tetraploids are the result of hybrid speciation where the original parents were two diploid species.

For example, in 2006, based on similarities in mitochondrial DNA, the population in northern Europe (northernmost Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden) was placed together with the populations from far southeastern Europe (southern Balkan and Cyprus) and parts of Asia (Anatolia and the Levant to Iran and central Asia) as the species B. variabilis.

[2] For example, B. sitibundus and B. viridis have a broad hybrid zone in eastern Europe (mostly southern Balkan and European Russia) and western Anatolia, B. balearicus and B. viridis have a relatively narrow hybrid zone in the region of far northeastern Italy, and B. balearicus and B. boulengeri siculus only have very marginal hybridisation in eastern Sicily.

The intergeneric hybrid offspring often has a high mortality rate and if reaching maturity it is presumed that their reproductive ability is low or none.