Bull. Acad. Intern. Géogr. Bot. 23: 192 (1914).

Basionym: Lecidea atroflava Turner, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 9: 142 (1808).

Thallus: crustose, areolate, without elongated lobes; prothallus present or absent, black; surface dark gray to brownish-gray, smooth, without asexual propagules; cortex indistinct, thin. Apothecia adnate, 0.3-0.6 mm in diam., lecanorine; disc dark reddish orange or orange, flat, epruinose; margin persistent, raised; thalline margin present or absent, concolorous with thallus; proper margin visible, little lighter than disc; parathecium consisting of radiating hyphae or elongate to oval cells; exciple below hypothecium amorphous; epihymenium golden; hymenium hyaline, 50-70 µm tall; paraphyses 2-3 tip cells slightly swollen, with few branches or with some branching; subhymenium hyaline.; asci cylindrical, 8-spored. Ascospores hyaline, 2 locules, ellipsoid, 11-17 x 5.5-8.5 µm, isthmus 4-5.5 µm, spore end wall thin. Pycnidia not observed (Nash et al. 2001: xx).

Photobiont: Data lacking.

Chemistry: epihymenium K+ red or K+ violet, H-, 10%N + violet, cN-, C- or C+ red; apothecial margin K+ red, H-, 10% N-, cN-, C-; thallus K- or K+ violet, H+ violet, 10%N+ violet, cN+ violet, C-; unidentified anthraquinones, thalloidima green. (Nash et al. 2001: xx).

Ecology: On non-calcareous rocks.

Molecular data: Genbank

Distribution: Database

Note: "Caloplaca albolutescens, C. atroflava, C. demissa, C. erythrocarpa, C. soralifera, C. teicholyta, C. xerica are clearly related to the genus Pyrenodesmia, but more sequence data are needed to resolve the relationship of this genus to the C. xerica group and C. demissa" (Arup et al. 2013: 74).