María Prieto and Ibai Olariaga suggest that Placidium is a superfluous illegitimate name according to strict application of nomenclatural rules. This is because when Massalongo circumscribed the genus in 1855, he included the original type species of genus Endocarpon, E. pusillum. When Othmar Breuss resurrected the genus for use in 1996,[4] he assigned P. michelii as its type, even though Massalongo did not include P. michelii in Placidium in his original 1855 circumscription, but rather in a later treatment of the genus. In 2019, Prieto and Olariaga submitted a proposal to conserve the name Placidium with Placidium michelii as its conserved type species.[5]
^Breuss, O. (1996). "Ein verfeinertes Gliederungskonzept für Catapyrenium (lichenisierte Ascomyceten, Verrucariaceae)" [A refined outline concept for Catapyrenium (Lichenized Ascomycetes, Verrucariaceae)]. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien (in German). 98 (Suppl.): 35–50.