Vermilacinia leopardina is a fruticose lichen usually that grows abundantly on the branches of shrubs in the fog regions along the Pacific Coast of North America, in the Channel Islands and on the mainland of California from Santa Barbara County south to the Vizcaíno Peninsula of Baja California.

[1] The species is also reported to occur in Chile, based on a single specimen mounted on a large index card off to one corner with the type (biology) of Usnea tumidula (variant of V. ceruchis[1]) in the center and bottom (plate 45.2 in Spjut 1996[1]); it is possible that the specimen of V. leopardina was from North America and placed on the card for the purpose of making a comparison to the type for Usnea tumidula, which was annotated Ramalina ceruchis var.

Also, pycnidia in V. nylanderi are abundantly fertile; i.e., they produce what appear to be viable conidia (conidium singular), which “are specialized, non-motile fungal spores,” that appear to function as re-establishing the lichen with an “appropriate photobiont,” a form of asexual reproduction,[3] in contrast to “sterile pycnidia (conidia not evident) in V. leopardina.

[1] Vermilacinia leopardina may appear to intergrade morphologically with V. corrugata;[6] however, the species are easily distinguished by differences in the lichen terpenoid substances.

[1] The genus Vermilacinia is distinguished from Niebla by the absence of chondroid strands in the medulla,[10] and by the major lichen substance predominantly of terpenes.