Name: Araceae
Meaning of Name:
Araceae, from New Latin arum, from Ancient Greek ἄρον (áron, ‘cuckoopint’ (Arum italicum)) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)
Common Names:
The arum family, aroids
Botanical Information:
Araceae contains some 114 genera and about 3, 750 species. It is known as the arum family, and many popular ornamentals of this family are further known as ‘aroids’.
The Lemnoideae (duckweed) subfamily is now also included following phylogenetic work.
One defining botanical characteristic of Araceae is their distinctive inflorescence (flower cluster) known as a spadix, which in turn is often surrounded by a modified leaf called a bract.
The photo chosen to illustrate this family shows the inflorescence of the peace lily Spathiphyllum cochlearispathum. The yellow corncob-like stem is the spadix and the white petal-like part is the bract.
Picture: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
