Thallus: foliose, monophyllous, reniform to irregularly spreading, loosely attached at one point, occasionally suberect, 1-4(-6) cm in diam.; lobes: broadly rounded to subirregular often distinctly monophyllous or cochleate, with sinuous, rarely notched or incised, thickened margins rolled under forming a definite ridge below; upper surface: livid slate gray to gray-brown suffused red-brown when moist, pale gray to dull gray-brown or red-brown when dry, undulate, smooth or here and there punctate-impressed or irregularly wrinkled to subfaveolate, in parts glossy, otherwise dull, flabby when moist, papery when dry, with minute, white maculae forming a delicate marbling of upper surface when wet (x 10 lens), without isidia or phyllidia, erose-sorediate; soredia: coarsely granular, gray-blue, in erose, linear marginal soralia or in scattered, rounded, pustular laminal soralia usually close to lobe margins, sometimes also developing in cyphellae on lower surface near margins; medulla: white; photobiont: cyanobacterial; lower surface: pale yellowish buff to gray-brown, red-brown or dark brown, delicately to strongly wrinkled-ridged or striate near margins, elsewhere densely felted-tomentose; tomentum: shaggy, gray to brown-black; cyphellae: sparse, widely scattered, rounded to irregular 0.5-1.5(-2) mm in diam., sunken in tomentum, sometimes pustular and with gray soredia, with very thin, sharply defined, slightly raised margins, with a white basal membrane; Apothecia: not seen; Pycnidia: rare, occasional to scattered near apices, immersed, ostiole dark red-brown, 0.05-0.1 mm in diam., punctate-impressed; conidia: hyaline, bacilliform to slightly curved, 4-6 x 1 µm; Spot tests: all negative; Secondary metabolites: none detected.; Substrate and ecology: on rocks amongst mosses in open forest habitats of moderate to high humidity, 3800 m; World distribution: widespread though nowhere common, pantemperate, pantropical (at higher elevations); Sonoran distribution: rare and local in central California [San Mateo Co: San Francisco Watershed] and perhaps extending southwards into the Sonoran area. 

Australia

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

New Zealand

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Global Range: Southern Appalachians and west coast of North America, including the Pacific Northwest; also known from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (Dey 1978). North Carolina, Minnesota, Oregon, and California (Dey 1978 and Fink 1935). In western North America, occurring from Alaska to California, west of the Cascade crest, with inland disjuncts in British Columbia (McCune and Geiser 1997).

Comments: Grows on bark or over mosses on trees (Hale 1979). Grows on Fagus in high-elevation deciduous forests; also rare at lower elevations (Dey 1978). In California, on broadleaf trees, rarely conifers, or over mosses on trees in North Coastal Forest from 300 to 1500 m elevation (Hale 1988).

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Lichen / parasite
apothecium of Abrothallus parmeliarum parasitises thallus of Sticta limbata

Lichen / parasite
pycnidium of Vouauxiomyces coelomycetous anamorph of Vouauxiomyces santessonii parasitises thallus of Sticta limbata

Australia

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

New Zealand

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: Sticta limbata is rare in the Appalachians and it is rare from the Californian Santa Cruz Mountains northward into Oregon in the North Coast Ranges. Additionally, the foliose lichen is known from Alaska southward and rarely inland to British Columbia. The species also occurs in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The lichen grows on bark (Fagus in the high elevations of the Appalachians) or over mosses on trees.

Comments: Stable: Genus has not been monographed in many years, but most species well-defined and distinct.