Vermilacinia procera is a fruticose lichen of local occurrences on rocks near the sea along the Pacific Coast from San Francisco California to the Channel Islands, and to Punta Escarpada in Baja California (an isolated region along precipitous ocean cliffs between Punta Canoas and Punta San Carlos on the northern Peninsula of Baja California). The species is also reported to occur further south to the Vizcaíno Peninsula and on Cedros Island, but these reports are controversial in view of different interpretations of the species that include V. pumila and V. paleoderma that were not recognized at the time V. procera was described (as Niebla procera); for example, a specimen collected on Guadalupe Island by Weber and MCoy (L-3605, COLO that was cited by Phillip Rundel and Peter Bowler in 199