Vermilacinia cephalota is a fruticose lichen usually found on trees, shrubs and wooden fences in the fog regions along the Pacific Coast of North America from southeastern Alaska to the Vizcaíno Peninsula of Baja California.

[1] Vermilacinia cephalota is classified in the subgenus Cylindricaria in which it is distinguished from related species by the thallus divided into tubular inflated or somewhat compressed fan-shaped branches that arise from a central point of attachment and produce soredia,[1] powdery masses of green alga and white fungal cells that erupt through the cortex, which in V. cephalota form pincushion-like heads (capitate) called soralia (soralium singular) because of their regular shape.

This has been attributed to the diterpene (-)-16 α-hydroxykaurane[2] that occurs in most species of Vermilacinia, and may also be related to an unidentified compound, referred to as T3 (based on its Rf position on a thin-layer chromatography plate), and an aliphatic depside, bourgeanic acid.

Vermilacinia leonis, which has a flaccid thallus much like cooked spaghetti, is found mainly south of the Vizcaíno Peninsula in Baja California, and also reported to occur in Chile.

Two other sorediate species, described in the genus Niebla, one of which is similar to some forms of V. cephalota, was distinguished by dot-like (“punctiform”) soralia that develop on terminal acicular branchlets; another has a flattened thallus similar to Ramalina lacera, but referred to Niebla by the presence of the depside methyl 3,5 dichlorolecanorate;[15] however, it reportedly lacks pycnidia,[15] which is found in all other species of Vermilacinia.