The Geoglossaceae are a small family of earth-tongue fungi, producing club to tongue-shaped, dark, fleshy ascocarps that arise from soil, moss, or decaying plant material. The fertile surface covers the entire upper portion of the club, with asci embedded in a dark, often olive-brown to black hymenium. Spores are typically elongate, multiseptate, and smooth. Members are saprotrophic, favouring damp forest litter and mossy ground, and are most diverse in temperate regions, including New Zealand.

Trichoglossum are the hairy earth‑tongues, instantly recognised by their dark setae covering the fertile head and often the stipe, and by their multiseptate spores.