Chiodecton Ach.
Thallus crustose, uniform, thin or thick, continuous or ± areolate-cracked, smooth, or granular-roughened, matt to somewhat pulverulent, in irregular, spreading patches, delimited by a thin, black prothallus, often forming confluent mosaics on bark. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia, cells minute, oblong-ellipsoid, in filaments. Apothecia innate, compound, in well-developed stromata in raised thalline verrucae, verrucae concolorous with thallus or paler, round to irregular, polycarpic, discs flat or subconcave, black or red-brown, matt, epruinose. Hypothecium brown or blackish-brown. Asci bitunicate, cylindrical-clavate, 8-spored. Paraphyses numerous, branched or netted. Ascospores fusiform-acicular, flexuose, 3-5-septate, normally 3-septate, colourless.
Chiodecton is a cosmopolitan genus of c. 175 species, best developed in tropical regions. It is included in the family Opegraphaceae and is related to Enterographa. One species is known from northern New Zealand but the genus is still very poorly understood here and is much in need of study and collection.
