Niebla josecuervoi is a fruticose lichen that grows on rock, stony soil and sand along the Pacific Coast of northern Baja California from near Misión San Vicente Ferrer to Punta Santa Rosalilillita.

[1] Niebla josecuervoi was first recognized by Phillip Rundel and Peter Bowler based on thalli “growing abundantly on basalt ridge of Colina del Sudoeste, Bahía de San Quintín, 28 March 1971” as a new species of Desmazieria (type specimen, salazinic acid, Rundel & Bowler 250, Univ.

[1] On 5 May 1986, Spjut, accompanied by John Cassady, Chairman of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at Purdue University, and later Dean of the School of Pharmacy at Ohio State University, along with his graduate student, Thomas McCloud, collected a 1 kg sample of a terricolous Niebla on sandy shore of Bahía Falsa at Bahía de San Quintín.

[1] Two descriptions were provided for N. homalea, one for rock forms and one for soil forms;[6] soil forms were implicitly excluded from the nomenclature list of synonyms by stating “rock populations of N. homalea thalli have spot tests negative, except P+ (synonym Niebla pulchribarbara; see Niebla josecuervoi), K+ when salazinic or protocetraric acids are present (See Niebla josecuervoi).” It appears that the description under N. homalea was intended for the two species, a practice that deviates from that traditionally published in floras.

Niebla josecuervoi was recognized by Spjut as “common on lowland rocky terraces and mesas, occasional on stones of mountains ridges,” in the “Northern Vizcaíno Desert” and “transitional vegetation to California Chaparral.”[1]