The most important technical character distinguishing this from the similar N. homalea is the lack of chondroid strands in the medulla. This can be seen in the field with a hand lense by cutting a branch cross-wise: chondroid strands would appear as irregular to rounded somewhat shiny thickenings in the otherwise cottony white (but still rather dense) medulla.
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Throughout coastal California and Baja Caifornia. I’ve found it thriving as far north as Point Navarro, in Mendocino County, and expect it can be found farther north as well.
Common Name: Smooth or Black-Footed Sea-Fog Lichen
Shrubby fruticose lichen on rocks of sea bluffs and cliffs. The branches are conspicuously flattened, smooth and shiny, like blades.
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Rocks along immediate coast on bluffs and cliffs, apparently never soil. Always growing with N. homalea in my experience.
The only Niebla that ever attains such broad flattened smooth blade-like branches is N. homalea, which has chondroid strands in the medulla, but is generally more angular, duller and less flattened.
