It has been recorded in diverse locations such as Pacific Islands, the southern United States, East Africa, Asia, Australasia, and South America.

Its presence has been documented in specific habitats like mangroves in Australia and on certain tree species in Taiwan and China, where it thrives at higher elevations.

Initially identified with a limited set of characteristics, modern microscopy, chemical analyses with thin-layer chromatography, and molecular phylogenetics have expanded its classification framework.

[3] The species was hypothesised by Richard Spjut and colleagues (2020) to be distinct from similar records in Southern Europe and Macaronesia, suggesting those belong to Ramalina crispans.

[4] The type specimen's precise origin, initially vague, was narrowed down to the Pacific coast of Peru, near Lima, based on associated species and historical context provided by botanists like Mariano Lagasca.

Because the original type specimen was too old for DNA sequencing, Harrie Sipman and Ángel Ordaya obtained fresh material from the "locus classicus" in the Lachay National Reserve (Huaura Province, Peru).

By sequencing the internal transcribed spacer from these specimens, they demonstrated a well-supported clade with R. crispans and R. hyrcana and were thus able to confirm them as synonyms of R. peruviana.

[6] The surface texture of Ramalina peruviana can be either matt or shiny and varies from smooth to wrinkled (rugose), with pseudocyphellae—small, porous areas that allow gas exchange—occasionally present.

[8] Ramalina hossei is also similar to R. peruviana but can be differentiated by its branches' smoother surface, the presence of cracked chondroid tissue, and its short fusiform spores.

A key identifying feature of R. peruviana is its fine isidiate branchlets that often emerge from the soralia and are typically found at the tips of the thallus branches.

The mycobiont (fungus component) of Ramalina peruviana was reported to form sekikaic acid when cultivated in liquid culture medium as it does in the intact lichen, but not associated "satellite" compounds.

In addition to its country of origin in Peru, the lichen has also been recorded from Africa, Australia, several Pacific Islands, Tristan da Cunha,[14] and Saint Helena.

[3] In Iran, where it was described under the name Ramalina hyrcana, it is found exclusively in the Hyrcanian forests along the Caspian coast, where it grows on tree trunks and is quite shade tolerant.

[27] Several lichen-associated fungi have isolated from Ramalina peruviana and identified as belonging to the genera Colletotrichum, Daldinia, Hypoxylon, Nemania, Nigrospora, and Xylaria.

Common in Ecuador and known throughout South America, both sexual and asexual forms of the fungus (the latter known as Phaeosporobolus usneae) have been found parasitising the lichen in Cajas National Park.