Polycauliona polycarpa is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), fruticose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae.

[2] It was first formally described by German botanist Georg Franz Hoffmann in 1796, as Lobaria polycarpa.

It has acquired quite an extensive synonymy in its taxonomic history.

[1] In 2013, Patrik Frödén and colleagues transferred it to the genus Polycauliona, as part of a molecular phylogenetics-based restructuring of the family Teloschistaceae.

[3] In northern North America, one vernacular name for the species is pin-cushion sunburst lichen.