Coniocarpon cuspidans (Nyl.) Moen, Frisch & Grube

The thallus is off-white to fawn and has a matt to weakly glossy, compact surface. It is immersed in the bark to superficial. The margin is not determinate or delimited by a thin brown line, mainly when in contact with other lichen thalli. The photobiont is a species of the family Trentepohliaceae.

The apothecia are raised over the thallus surface and typically clearly elongated, lirellate or branched. They are dark purplish brown in color, and lack the orange red or white pruina of the other Coniocarpon species. Individual lirellae are 0.2–0.6 × 0.1–0.2 mm in size and 60–105 μm tall. They are often aggregated in loose or dense stare-shaped clusters reaching 2.3 × 1.8 mm in size.

The epithecium is 8–20 μm tall, dark brown, and includes numerous unpigmented crystals in addition to orange, red and purplish granular pigment.

The hymenium is 40–75 μm tall and colorless except for the occasional weak and patchily distributed red to purplish pigmentation.

The hypothecium is colorless to pale brown and 15–30 μm tall.

The paraphysoids are 1–2 μm wide. Their tips are widened to 3–4 μm and extend horizontally above the asci. The tips often protrude from the epithecium to form sparsely branched hair-like extensions up to 10 μm in length. The hyphal walls contain patchily distributed brown pigment.

The asci are clavate, with stipe, 45–70 × 19–28 μm in size, and 8-spored.

The spores are colorless, narrowly obovoid, (15–)16–18(–20) × (6–)7–8(–9) μm in size, and are divided by (2–)3(–4) transverse septa. The apical cell is enlarged. Old spores are pale brown.

Pycnidia have not been found in the species.

The thallus does not react with C, K, KC, Pd or UV (C–, K–, KC–, Pd–, UV–), but the orange red pruina of the apothecia changes to purple in K (K+ purple). Pigments A1, A2 and A3 in variable amounts have been detected by TLC.

All parts of the apothecium react Idil+ red, I+ red and KI+ blue. A KI+ blue ring structure is present in the tholus of the asci. The orange, red and purple crystals dissolve in K with a clear and fleeting purplish solution.