Heppia species grow on rock or soil in arid sites around the world, in habitats similar to those favored by Peltula, which is similar but has a different cyanobacterium as the photobiont.[2] It lacks a medulla that is separate from the photobiont layer.[2] It is a cyanolichen with the photobiont cyanobacterium being Syctonema (or Syctonema-like).[2] The lower surface is paler than upper surface, and has numerous rhizoidal hyphae attaching it to the substrate.[2] The fruiting structures (ascomata) are apothecias immersed in the thallus with red to red-brown urn shaped (urceolate) to flat or slightly convex discs.[2] An exciple may or may not be present.[2]
^Schultz, Matthias; Büdel, Burkhard (2003). "On the systematic position of the lichen genus Heppia". The Lichenologist. 35 (2): 151–156. doi:10.1016/s0024-2829(03)00019-7. S2CID85595474.
