Two members of the Lecanora varia group (sensu Eigler), L. strobilina and L. symmicta, can be difficult to distinguish in northeastern North America. Morphological and chemical investigation of 277 specimens recognizes two species in northeastern North America, both fitting European concepts of L. strobilina and L. symmicta. The only reliable character for separating them is the size of the exciple (consistently larger in L. symmicta). Within each of these two species, previously unknown chemical variation is revealed—L. strobilina comprises three distinct chemotypes, while L. symmicta includes two. An isotype of L. symmictera is shown to contain the thiophanic acid chemosyndrome by HPLC, and hence the name L. symmictera cannot be applied to the xanthone-deficient chemotype of L. symmicta. Chemistry is not correlated with morphology or geographic distribution in either L. strobilina or L. symmicta, so we regard the chemotypes of these two species as intraspecific variation.