Taking its common name from its lettuce-like appearance, the lichen grows in the tree canopy but falls to the forest floor, where it is consumed by deer, elk, and other animals.

[2] The species was first described by American botanist Edward Tuckerman in 1874 as Sticta oregana, and later (1889) transferred to the genus Lobaria by Swiss lichen specialist Johannes Müller Argoviensis.

[1] Via cyanobacteria, it fixes nitrogen from the air, which then enters the local ecosystem when eaten or when absorbed by rootlets which the host trees extend from their own bark into the lichen.

[3] Very little is known about the history of this lichen and its uses, beyond remedying the coughing of blood by the Hesquiat people of British Columbia.

[4] This lichen prefers to grow on large coniferous trees; especially Douglas Firs, in forests.

The lichen prefers middle elevations, and although it spans west from the Cascade and Alaskan Mountains to the ocean, it is most commonly found on the Coastal range.

[4] Although it is very rare for this species to drift far from the cool, humid west coastline, the farthest east sighting was in 2012, where two people reported seeing Lobaria Oregana in a forest near Usk, Washington.

The farthest North sighting of this lichen was in 2017, south from Indian, Alaska across the Turnagain Arm.

[5] The transfer of nitrogen that Lobaria Oregana fixes the forest floor is by litter fall, decomposition, and by leaching off of other intact lichens.