| The genus Acoridium is characterized by an extraordinary history. The original species, A. tenellum, a native of the Philippine Islands, was described at length from a fruiting specimen in 1843 by Nees von Esenbeck and referred to the Philydraceae. This treatment was prompted by the aspect of the plant, its vegetative structure and the mature seedcapsule adnate on the upper part of the elongated, sedge-like leaf. In 1843, Endlicher (Mant. Gen. Pl. Suppl. 3:59) transferred the genus from the Philydraceae to the doubtful genera of the Burmanniaceae. Until 1879, Acoridium remained a puzzling and inadequately understood concept, and then Boeckler [Flora 62 (1879) 158] placed it in the Cyperaceae, assigning to it a position between Scirpus and Eleocharis,... |
