in Webb & Berthelot, Hist. nat. Iles Canar. (Paris) 3, 2: 100 (1840).
Type: Hab. Ad rupes insulae Canariae à cl. Despréaux lecta.
Type lobality: Spain, Canary Islands "In Canariin, ex herb. Webbianum, sine coll." (BM) [TLC: Salacinic acid].
Thallus: fruticose, rigid, ascending or subpendulous, 5 - 12 - 18 cm long, with a number of laciniae from a broad holdfast. Laciniae stramineous, green-grey, or pale yellow-brown, shiny, subshiny, or matt, unbranched or dichotomously to irregularly branched, linear, sublinear, or with more or less cuneate internodes, flat or very rarely weakly channeled, 4 - 8 - 11 mm broad, smooth, pitted, or variously ridged and wrinkled, often with broad, cartilaginous, slightly raised longitudinal striae interspersed with transversely puckered areas, margins smooth or undulate, sometimes tuberculate, often with short, divergent side branches. Soralia absent. Shortly linear, longitudinal pseudocyphellae occasional near the base, rarely along the length of the laciniae. Cortex 40 - 50 µm thick, chondroid tissue forming a discontinuous cylinder or separate strands adjoining the cortex in proximal parts interconnected across the dense medulla. Pycnidia marginal and / or laminal, partly or wholly with black ostioles, not apparent in all specimens. Apothecia common in distal half of straight or geniculate branches, disc flat at maturity, 5 - 8 - 12 mm in diameter, often radially split or with crenate margin, spores straight or slightly curved, 10 - 13 / 3.5 - 5 µm (Krog & Østhagen 1980: 270).
Photobiont: Green alga.
Chemistry:
Ecology: Saxicolous. On the Canary Islands between 90 and 1200 m altitude, but most common between 400 and 900 m. Seems to prefer northfacing rock faces (Krog & Østhagen 1980: 270).
Distribution type: All Makaronesian Island groups and Morocco [Cape Verde, Portugal (Azores, Madeira), Spain: Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Gomera, Gran Canaria, Hierro, La Palma, Lanzarote, Tenerife), and Morocco].
Taxonomy: Ramalina subwebbiana, occuring in Mozambique, is not a synonym of Ramalina decipiens (van den Boom & Ertz 2012: 87).
Note:
Race I: Salazinic acid (Krog & Østhagen 1980: 270).
Race II: Protocetraric acid (Krog & Østhagen 1980: 270).