Niebla sorocarpia is characterized by a turgid hemispherical thallus divided into subtubular branches from a yellowish to yellowish orange pigmented holdfast, to 10 cm high and 12 cm across; the primary branches expanded above, palm-like and contorted from which finger to tongue-shaped lobes arise with dense aggregates of undeveloped isidia (isidium)-like apothecia or with isidia-like pycnidia,[2][3] occasionally primary branches not expanded, remaining mostly linear with terminal aggregates of aborted apothecia; the whole thallus resembling broccoli.

[4] Similar species are Niebla undulata, distinguished by a smaller thallus with a short tubular base, and Niebla infundibula that differs by lack of aggregate apothecia and larger prominent pycnidia not elevated by the surrounding cortex.

[1] Niebla sorocarpia was first recognized by Richard Spjut, accompanied by Richard Marin and Thomas McCloud, on 19 May 1986 just south of Punta Negra on rock outcrops on a ridge that appeared to have received more precipitation from ocean fog than other nearby areas (Plate 1D in Spjut’s 1996 revision of Niebla and Vermilacinia).

[1] This particular ridge was observed during May 1985 by Spjut—while he and Marin were collecting samples of lichens in search of new drugs to treat HIV—to have fog lingering around the peaks most of the day.

The species (N. sorocarpia) was later collected on boulders further north along the main peninsula of Baja California, and from San Miguel Island[1] It (N. sorocarpia) appears to be an infrequent species of boulder Niebla communities, occurring where moisture from fog is greater as related to topography.