Hanging fringed lichen is a folioseto fruticose lichen with numerous apothecia and have ciliate margins and concave disks that are often covered in white powdery substance called pruina. The thallus (vegetative body) is white to grey, mostly foliose but approaching fruticose, prostrate, upright or dangling, up to 8cm long. White to black cilia are frequent along thallus lobe margins. The underside of the thallus is without rhizines or cortex.
It can be distinguished by its narrow, linear ciliate lobes as well as the cilia along the margins of the apothecia. A palmulata is the only other species in this genus found in WI. Unlike A crinalis, it does have rhizines, is more clearly foliose, and does not have as many cilia along the thallus lobe margins.
