It is found in western North America, Mongolia, and Switzerland where it grows on mosses and plant debris.

The type specimen was collected northwest of the Tombstone Ridge in Larimer County (Colorado) at an elevation between 3,500 and 3,600 m (11,500 and 11,800 ft).

[1] The lichen has an orange to yellow, granular thallus, with the granules (measuring 0.1–0.35 mm) scattered to crowded, and often obscured by the apothecia.

[1] The original range of the species included the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range, where it grows above the tree line in alpine tundra on mosses and plant debris, and steppe-like habitats in the Interior Basin at elevations greater than 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

[3] Lichenochora arctica is a lichenicolous fungus that has been recorded growing on Candelariella aggregata in Mongolia.