Parmeliopsis esorediata (Degel.) Nordnes was first described in 1956 as a non-sorediate variety of the wide-ranging boreal sorediate P. hyperopia. It was considered endemic to subalpine areas of southern Norway until a 2004 collection was made in the Ural Mountains of Russia. Here, we report P. esorediata for the first time for North America, from the Gaff Topsails region of western Newfoundland, Canada. This high-elevation region is similar bioclimatically to those in Norway and Russia where P. esorediata occurs. We review the status of this globally rare lichen and P. hyperopia as a “species pair”. Whether they have an ancestor-descendant relationship, or whether P. esorediata has arisen sporadically and repeatedly, should now be amenable to resolution with molecular phylogenetic methods.