Niebla rugosa is a fruticose lichen that grows on rocks along the foggy Pacific Coast of Baja California in the Vizcaíno Desert.

[1] Niebla rugosa was recognized as a result of undertaking a taxonomic revision of the genus in regard to developing a lichen flora of Baja California, which began in 1986.

[1] It was first collected northwest of Bahía Tortugas near Punta Eugenia on the Vizcaíno Peninsula of Baja California.

17 May 1986, the type (biology), Spjut 9699, deposited in the United States National Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural History, Botany Department),[3] and at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico.

The species (N. rugosa) was subsequently collected along the east coast of Cedros Island (Spjut & Marin 10539, Apr 1989) on mesas north of Punta Canoas (Spjut 11251, Apr 1990), and on small rocks in a pebble Niebla community along the beach near the northern boundary of the Vizcaíno Desert, just south of Campo Nuevo (Spjut & Marin 12760, Apr 1993).