The lichen grows on rocky outcrops in open maritime scrub habitats.

[1] The type collection of Niebla isidiaescens [2] was inferred to have divaricatic acid[3] based on the circumscription given by Bowler and collaborators.

[1] However, it is a mixed collection[4] of approximately 20 specimens of mostly two species, N. isidiaescens and Vermilacinia paleoderma, and loose branches of a third species, Niebla contorta,[5] the identification for the latter assumes that the thalli parts contain divaricatic acid.

[3] This association and the broad lobes of the thallus may indicate that N. isidiaescens was derived from N. contorta, in contrast to Niebla flagelliforma.

[3] Niebla usneoides is a similar species distinguished by the absence of pycnidia and presence of sekikaic acid.