Niebla dissecta is a fruticose lichen that grows on rocks along the Pacific coast of California, in San Mateo County and in the Channel Islands.

[1] Niebla dissecta is recognized by the thallus broader than tall—not more than 4 cm high, divided into many narrow partly subterete but mostly irregular 3-angled branches that arise from a common attachment area, blackened slightly around the base to a short distance above, the 3 longitudinal ridges spirally twisted 90° at frequent but irregular intervals, the primary branches often more compressed and broader where they divide more or less equally into secondary branches that ultimately divide again and spread as much as 180°.

[1] The association of Niebla species at each geographical location might be viewed as the Niebla collective in that each appears to have a unique set of morphological and chemical features not seen at other locations, the exceptions being the isidiate species and those that appear to be recent colonizers or occur at the extreme range of the genus (see p. 20–24 in Spjut, 1996).

But it is not random; the California Nieblas with sekikaic acid, which are more common in the Channel Islands than on the mainland, exhibit an evolutionary pattern in the Channel Islands from sparingly branched thalli with prismatic branch forms (Niebla siphonoloba), to uniformly dissected thalli (N. dissecta), to thalli more densely branched near apex (N.

[1] Of particular importance was the collection by Charis Bratt from the Channel Islands that are deposited at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.