Varicellaria philippina is a
crustose lichen with a somewhat thick, continuous
thallus that is mostly smooth but can be slightly wrinkled, especially when young, where small wart-like beginnings of the fruiting bodies may appear. The thallus is whitish. In simple
spot tests it reacts K− and C+ (red), the colour change being strong inside and faint on the surface.
Soredia and
isidia are absent. The
medulla is I− (does not colour with iodine), and the is whitish and indistinct. The compound fruiting bodies () are crowded and nearly touching, measuring 0.7–1(–1.5) mm across. They are raised, at first slightly depressed and rounded, later becoming irregularly cylindrical with a slightly narrowed base. Each pseudostroma contains one, occasionally two,
apothecia. As they mature, the disc opens to about 0.5 mm wide, forming a shallow, urn-shaped cavity that is pale and somewhat bare. The margin is prominent, fairly smooth to slightly -, and the same colour as the thallus. Both the pseudostromata and the disc are K− and C+ (red). The spores are two per
ascus, colourless, oblong, and rounded to obtuse at the ends. They are non-gelatinous, with smooth walls about 6 μm thick, and measure 110–140 μm × 24–30 μm
V. philippina is morphologically and chemically similar to
V. velata, as noted by Vainio, but
V. velata has single-spored asci. ==Habitat and distribution==