Editing Linospadix linospadix (section)

===Taxonomic History:===
The genus ''Linospadix'' was first described
by Wendland (1875), and included one species,
''L. monostachya''. The identity of the
genus was soon to become obscured by new
species described firstly by Beccari (1877)
and secondly by the creation of a genus,
''Bacularia'', first suggested by Mueller
(1870) and later defined by Hooker (1882).
Beccari's interpretation of ''Linospadix''
differed considerably from the original
description, and the species that he included
in his ''Linospadix'' are now known to be
species of ''Calyptrocalyx''
(= syn. ''Paralinospadix'').

The fate of ''Bacularia'' was
for it to include species that conformed to
Wendland's original description. At first,
only Australian taxa were included in
''Bacularia'', but Beccari later described a few
species also from New Guinea. This situation
continued until Burtel (1935) recognised
the inconsistencies within the suite
of taxa. He proposed a revision of
''Linospadix'', which included the
synonymisation of ''Bacularia'' under
''Linospadix'' and the creation of a new genus,
''Paralinospadix'', to account for the
New Guinea taxa that Beccari had
'inadvertently' described as ''Linospadix'' species.
Burret's revision is the currently accepted
taxonomy for ''Linospadix''.

Recently, Dowe & Irvine (1997) presented
a revision of ''Linospadix'' in Australia in
which one new species was described. The
New Guinea taxa are presently the subject
of a systematic revision (Dowe in prep. ).
and preliminary assessment indicates that
of the five species that have been described
for the island, they indeed represent only
two closely related species, and informal
synonymy is accordingly suggested. A full
account of the Linospadicinae is now being
prepared as part of the Flora Malesiana
project (Dowe & Ferrero in prep.).