The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe. Also known as the arum family, members are often colloquially known as aroids. This family of 140 genera and about 4,075 known species is most diverse in the New World tropics, although also distributed in the Old World tropics and northern temperate regions.
Dieffenbachia, commonly known as dumb caneorleopard lily, is a genus of tropical flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is native to the New World Tropics from Mexico and the West Indies south to Argentina. Some species are widely cultivated as ornamental plants, especially as houseplants, and have become naturalized on a few tropical islands.
Chusquea is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina.
Psidium is a genus of trees and shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. It is native to warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere. Many of the species bear edible fruits, and for this reason several are cultivated commercially. The most popularly cultivated species is the common guava, Psidium guajava.
Xanthosoma is a genus of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae. The genus is native to tropical America but widely cultivated and naturalized in other tropical regions. Several are grown for their starchy corms, an important food staple of tropical regions, known variously as malanga, otoy, otoe, cocoyam, tannia, tannier, yautía, macabo, ocumo, macal, taioba, dasheen, quequisque, ʻape and as Singapore taro. Many other species, including especially Xanthosoma roseum, are used as ornamental plants; in popular horticultural literature these species may be known as ‘ape due to resemblance to the true Polynesian ʻape, Alocasia macrorrhizos, or as elephant ear from visual resemblance of the leaf to an elephant's ear. Sometimes the latter name is also applied to members in the closely related genera Caladium, Colocasia (taro), and Alocasia.
Anthurium is a genus of about 1,000 species of flowering plants, the largest genus of the arum family, Araceae. General common names include anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf.
Dracontium is a genus of flowering plants similar to those of Amorphophallus. Unlike Amorphophallus which is found in the Old World, this genus has a New World distribution and is native to South America, Central America, southern Mexico, and the West Indies.
Pseudogynoxys is a genus of flowering plant in the groundsel tribe within the sunflower family, native to North and South America.
Brunellia is a genus of trees. They are distributed in the mountainous regions of southern Mexico, Central America, West Indies, and South America. Brunellia is the only genus in the family Brunelliaceae. As of 2001 there were about 54 species.
Montrichardia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It contains two species, Montrichardia arborescens and Montrichardia linifera, and one extinct species Montrichardia aquatica. The genus is helophytic and distributed in tropical America. The extinct species M. aquatica is known from fossils found in a Neotropical rainforest environment preserved in the Paleocene Cerrejón Formation of Colombia. Living Montrichardia species have a diploid chromosome number of 2n=48.
Chlorospatha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. Chlorospatha can be found from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Austroeupatorium is a genus of plants native primarily to South America, including herbaceous perennials and shrubs. The native range is focused on eastern South America and extends as far north as Panama and Trinidad and as far west as Bolivia.
Anthurium andraeanum is a flowering plant species in the family Araceae that is native to Colombia and Ecuador. It is a winner of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Petrocardium is an extinct genus of monocot plants in the family Araceae. At present it contains only two species Petrocardium cerrejonense and Petrocardium wayuuorum, the type species. The genus is solely known from the Middle to Late Paleocene, Cerrejón Formation deposits in Colombia.
Montrichardia aquatica is an extinct species of monocot plant in the family Araceae. M. aquatica is related to the living species M. arborescens and M. linifera. The species is solely known from the Middle to Late Paleocene, fossil-rich Cerrejón Formation in La Guajira, northern Colombia.
Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose from within the arum or aroid family (Araceae), so often are classified as the subfamily Lemnoideae within the family Araceae. Other classifications, particularly those created prior to the end of the twentieth century, place them as a separate family, Lemnaceae.
Macroscepis is a genus of plants in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1819. It is native to Latin America and the West Indies.
Siphoneugena is a genus of the botanical family Myrtaceae, first described as a genus in 1856. It is native to Central and South America as well as the West Indies.
Thomas Bernard Croat is an American botanist and plant collector, noteworthy as one of botanical history's "most prolific plant collectors". He has collected and described numerous species of plants, particularly in the family Araceae, in his career at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
