This variation might also be seen as variants of the other species, except that specimens from Punta Banda and San Nicolas Island are remarkably similar in their morphology and in their secondary metabolites.

[2] This close morphological and chemical similarity between widely geographically separated individuals reinforces the recognition of N. laminaria as a distinct species as further exemplified in a genetic study of another fog lichen, Dendrographa leucophaea where thalli of D. leucophaea at Punta Banda and on San Nicolas Island, separated by water for a distance of 190 miles (Google Earth ruler), were found to be more genetically similar than to sterile and fertile forms of the same species growing next to each other.

[4][5] For example, Niebla cornea in southern California may be viewed by some as a sekikaic acid race of N. laminaria, or as a separate undescribed species, or under a very broad interpretation of a species (Niebla homalea) in which the variation in morphology is viewed as being environmentally induced and in chemistry as chemosyndrome variation.

[6] Niebla laminaria as described above is defined by its morphology and by its secondary metabolites with emphasis placed on secondary metabolites, not an uncommon practice in taxonomic treatments of other lichen genera;[7] Niebla cornea (sekikaic acid) and N. laminaria (divaricatic acid) are best distinguished by their lichen substances when they cannot be easily differentiated morphologically.

The voucher specimen for N. homalea was deposited at the United States National Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution),[9] Spjut & Marin 9032C.