It is endemic to Eastern North America and is distinguished by its broad, loosely attached lobes and primarily sexual reproduction.

The species epithet honours lichenologist Edward Tuckerman, who collected the type specimen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1838.

[2] Recent phylogenetic analysis shows P. tuckermanii as a distinct, monophyletic species with high support.

Ancestral state reconstruction suggests that P. tuckermanii, a sexual species, likely evolved from an asexual ancestor.

It has broad, loosely attached, narrowly branched, rounded lobes with an irregularly or reticulately pitted surface.