42 articles
Aglaonema
Aglaonema, or Chinese evergreen, is a genus of about 21-26 Araceae species native from northeast India to Papua New Guinea, grown as low-light houseplants and introduced to the West in 1885.
Alocasia
Alocasia is a genus of over 113 Araceae species native from tropical Asia to eastern Australia, including giant taro and Chinese taro; rainforest herbs with calcium oxalate raphides and a Borneo-centered Miocene dispersal history.
Amorphophallus
Amorphophallus (titan arum, konjac, elephant foot yam) is a genus of about 240-246 tuberous aroid herbs native to Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and N. Australia, known for foul-smelling, thermogenic inflorescences and food and medicinal corms.
Amorphophallus konjac
Amorphophallus konjac (konjac, konnyaku, devil's tongue, hua mo yu) is an Araceae tuber from Yunnan, China, cultivated about 2,000 years; its corm stores konjac glucomannan (over 50% of carbohydrates) used for gels, noodles, and supplements.
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, elephant foot yam (巨花蒟蒻), is an Araceae tuber crop of tropical Asia to northern Australia; its corms to 15 kg are a major carbohydrate food in India and Indonesia, with foul-smelling, heat-generating inflorescences.
Anthurium andraeanum
Anthurium andraeanum (flamingo-lily) is an epiphytic Araceae species native to Colombia and Ecuador, progenitor of over 2,000 anthurium cultivars, discovered 1876, bred mainly in Hawaii and the Netherlands, constrained by Xanthomonas bacterial blight.
Araceae
Araceae, the arum family (spathe and spadix plants, including duckweeds Lemnoideae), is a monocot family in Alismatales with about 144 genera and 3,650–4,000 species, early Cretaceous fossils, thermogenic inflorescences, and staple crops taro and tannia.
Araceae taxonomy and systematics
The taxonomy of Araceae, the arum family, classifies about 150 genera and over 4,600 species into eight subfamilies, with duckweeds nested inside and generic limits actively redrawn.
Arisaema
Arisaema (天南星属), jack-in-the-pulpits or cobra lilies, is a genus of about 200 aroid herbs (Araceae) native from Africa and Arabia through Asia to North America, with hooded spathes, sex-changing plants, 15 sections, and medicinal rhizomes.
Arisaema triphyllum
Arisaema triphyllum, jack-in-the-pulpit (also Indian turnip, wake robin), a North American Araceae herb with hooded spathe, size-dependent sex change, fungus-gnat pollination, and calcium oxalate toxicity.
Arum
Arum L. (arum lilies, lords-and-ladies) is a genus of 28 tuberous Araceae herbs native from Macaronesia and Europe to W. China, with heat- and odor-producing lure-and-trap inflorescences pollinated mainly by Psychoda flies, toxic calcium oxalate raphides, and Mediterranean origin.
Arum maculatum
Arum maculatum, known as cuckoo pint, lords-and-ladies, or wild arum, is a tuberous woodland plant of the arum family, native to Europe, with hooded flowers and toxic scarlet berries.
Caladium
Caladium, a genus of Araceae tuberous foliage plants including Caladium bicolor and the hybrid Caladium x hortulanum, grown for colorful heart-shaped leaves; Florida produces nearly all commercial tubers, centered on Lake Placid.
Callaloo
Callaloo is a Caribbean dish of cooked leafy greens and the greens themselves: amaranth in Jamaica, taro/dasheen in Trinidad, where it is a crab-and-okra soup; national dish of Dominica and Trinidad & Tobago.
Colocasia
Colocasia (taro genus) is an Asian aroid genus in Araceae, tribe Colocasieae; its species C. esculenta is the ancient staple crop taro, grown over 10,000 years, invasive in Florida, and distinguished from Alocasia by peltate leaves and parietal placentation.
Dieffenbachia
Dieffenbachia (dumb cane) is a genus of about 57 Araceae herbs native from Mexico to tropical America, grown as variegated houseplants; all parts contain calcium oxalate raphides and proteolytic enzymes causing painful swelling and temporary loss of speech.
Diseases of aroid foliage plants
Diseases of aroid foliage plants are the bacterial, fungal, and viral disorders of ornamental arum family (Araceae) crops, most seriously Xanthomonas bacterial blight of Anthurium.
Dracunculus
Dracunculus (dragon arums) is a genus of two tuberous aroid species, D. canariensis and D. vulgaris, native from Macaronesia to SW Türkiye, in tribe Areae, with thermogenic purple inflorescences.
Epipremnum aureum
Epipremnum aureum, known as golden pothos or devil's ivy, is a climbing vine in the arum family native to Mo'orea and grown widely as a houseplant.
Lemna
Lemna (duckweed) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 13 species of tiny free-floating aquatic plants in Araceae, reduced to fronds with one root each, used in wastewater phytoremediation, animal feed, and plant research.
Lemna gibba
Lemna gibba (gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed), Araceae, a free-floating duckweed with swollen fronds 1-8 mm, native from Europe to Central Asia, Africa, and America; used in OECD 221 toxicity tests, wastewater phytoremediation, and aquaculture feed.
Lemna minor
Lemna minor (common duckweed, lesser duckweed) is a tiny free-floating Araceae aquatic plant of temperate waters worldwide, used for phytoremediation, animal feed, medicine, and OECD toxicity testing; IUCN Least Concern.
Lemna protein
Lemna protein, or Lemna leaf protein (LLP), is protein from the duckweed Lemna minor; Plantible Foods' GRN 1256 received an FDA no-questions letter in 2026, with EU novel food authorization and egg-white-like functional properties.
Lemnoideae
Lemnoideae (duckweeds, formerly Lemnaceae): five genera, 36–37 species of tiny free-floating aquatic flowering plants in Araceae; fastest-growing angiosperms, Wolffia doubling in under 24 hours, protein-rich and used as food and wastewater treatment.
Monstera
Monstera is a genus of evergreen climbing plants in the arum family, native from Mexico to tropical America, known for large perforated leaves behind the name Swiss cheese plant.
Monstera deliciosa
Monstera deliciosa (Swiss-cheese plant, ceriman, tarovine) is a hemiepiphytic Araceae vine native to southern Mexico to Guatemala, grown for fenestrated leaves and edible ripe fruit; toxic unripe parts, high invasion risk in Florida.
Philodendron
Philodendron, also known as Arosma, is a genus of several hundred evergreen flowering plants in the arum family, native from Mexico to tropical America and widely grown as houseplants.
Philodendron hederaceum
Philodendron hederaceum (heartleaf philodendron, formerly P. scandens) is a hemiepiphytic Araceae vine native from Mexico to tropical South America, a popular low-light houseplant with toxic sap, invasive in Hawaii, Florida, and Singapore.
Pistia
Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce, jalkumbhi), sole species of genus Pistia in Araceae, is a free-floating pantropical aquatic herb that forms dense invasive mats and is widely used in wastewater phytoremediation.
Pothos
Pothos is both a real Araceae genus (Pothos L., 1753, type P. scandens, 66 species) and the common name for the houseplant Epipremnum aureum, or devil's ivy, reclassified out of Pothos after its flowers were studied.