The type specimen was collected close to Colpitas (General Lagos, Arica y Parinacota Region) at a height above mean sea level of 4,154 m (13,629 ft).

Here the lichen was found in a saline wetland amongst cushions of dead plants Zameioscirpus atacamensis and Oxychloë andina, as well as Carex and Deyeuxia curvula.

[2] Although it is only known from the type locality, the authors speculate that it is more widely distributed throughout northern Chile in high-elevation Andean Mountain wetlands.

The habitat of the lichen is typical of the puna grassland ecoregion in altiplano found in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru.

Its relatively small population—estimated to be about 600 individuals distributed in smaller subpopulations in up to 50 sites with suitable habitat—is subject to the impacts of mining, quarrying and other human activities.