It is the first species to be named in honor of United States President Barack Obama.

C. obamae was discovered in 2007 by Kerry Knudsen on Santa Rosa Island in California and published in March 2009.

It appears that C. obamae is sterile and does not produce ascospores; the apothecia that were present in specimens may belong to an associated species, Caloplaca ludificans.

[2] Caloplaca obamae is endemic to the northern side of Santa Rosa Island on clay soils of the Pleistocene marine terraces.

It occurs from Bechers Bay to Soledad Canyon on Santa Rosa in grasslands that have been heavily grazed for over a hundred years.