Lichens of California (Berkeley): 19 (1866).

Type locality: USA, California, Mission Dolores, San Francisco, Bolander 63 (FH - lectotype). Designated by Ryan 1989).

Thallus: dwarf fruticose, caespitose-stipitate, typically forming convex mounds or tufts, mostly to 3-5 cm diam., much branched, loosely to densely intertangled and clustered, sometimes poorly developed and coalescing into extensive, rather thin mats; branches simple or more or less irregularly short-branched, the marginal ones usually decumbent, terete and elongate, to 8-12(-25) mm long, 0.5-1 mm diam., with tips blunt, scarcely dilated, the central ones usually erect, 2.5-5(-12) mm long, to 0.5-1 mm diam., with tips slightly to strongly swollen or compressed ... (Ryan 1989: 515).