Life habit: lichenized, not lichenicolous; Thallus: crustose, thin, areolate to papillate or granular; prothallus: not obvious, often indicated by a darkish stain on the substrate; areoles: loose, scattered to clustered, rounded, +globose, becoming papillae-like, or granule-like, 0.06-0.26(-0.5) mm in diam., becoming wrinkled and fistulose with increasing size; surface: olive-brown (shady locations), chestnut brown, or tawny, glossy, without thallospores; Apothecia: common, grouped to usually scattered, (0.3-)0.6-1.1(-1.3) mm in diam., adnate to sessile and constricted below (substipitate); disc: reddish brown (to black), usually more reddish than thallus, round, initially plane, usually soon convex or remaining plane with edges reflexed, occasionally somewhat tuberculate, very glossy; margin: thin, concolorous with thallus, smooth or crenulate, level with disc or raised, shiny, usually soon excluded; amphithecium: with an eucortical cortex overlain by a gelatinous layer, with a distinct medulla filled with algal cells; exciple: thin, concolorous with the thallus externally, hyaline internally, soon disappearing; epihymenium: brownish orange; hymenium: light yellowish orange to hyaline, 30-50 µm tall; hypothecium: hyaline, composed of horizontally arranged, swollen and conglutinate hyphae that contain the algal layer or clumps of algae; asci: clavate, 8-spored; ascospores: hyaline, simple, fusiform or ellipsoid, (7-)8-12(-16) x 2-3.5(-5) µm; Pycnidia: rare, immersed, dark above; conidia: hyaline, short, acicular, straight, 7-9 x c. 0.7 µm,; Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-; Secondary metabolites: none detected.; Substrate and ecology: on bark or rarely wood of conifers (Pseudotsuga, Pinus, Alnus), often in deep fissures of the bark; World distribution: western North America and Europe; Sonoran distribution: southern California.; Notes: Protoparmelia ochrococca is unusual within the genus by occurring on bark and wood; however, it is not the only species occurring on these substrates. In Europe two similar species are distinguished, both with scrufy granular thalli: P. oleagina (Harm.) Coppins and P. hypotremella Herk, Spier & V. Wirth (Aptroot et al. 1997).
