[2] The genus was circumscribed in 1852 by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo, with Sporodictyon schaererianum assigned as the type species.

As a result of molecular phylogenetic work published in 2008, the genus was resurrected by Sanja Savić and Leif Tibell for three species that formed a monophyletic clade, and which included the type species: S. cruentum, S. schaererianum, and S. terrestre.

[4] Several molecular phylogenetic-based publications have shown that characters traditionally used to separate taxa in the Verrucariaceae, namely spore septation and growth form, are not always reliable for representing monophyletic groups at generic and higher ranks.

The asci are variably sized (even in the same specimen), with reported dimension ranging from 105 to 236 by 34–118 μm; they typically have eight spores (although sometimes contain fewer).

Spore are muriform, meaning they are divided into smaller internal compartment by transverse and longitudinal septa.