This is a bushy lichen in the form of a protruding splayed bush. The thallus is 6-10 cm long, bluish-green in color with a pinkish or red tinge, sometimes completely red-brown, due to the red pigment in the core layer. Lobes of the first and second orders with numerous tubercles, often with mediums at the tops, and with isidia . Apothecia is rare, surrounded by fibrils .
The species is common in the oceanic temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Asia, the Azores and Canaries , in North, Central and South America, East and South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Russian Far East.
It grows mainly in dark coniferous forests , on trunks and branches of conifers.