The Family Araceae
The Araceae, or aroids, is a family of herbaceous monocotyledons with 104 genera and about 3700 species if the Lemnaceae (duckweeds) is not regarded as a generic synonym, or 108 genera and about 3750 species if the Lemnaceae are included. The family is predominantly tropical in distribution, with 90% of genera and c. 95% of species restricted to the tropics. Although the greatest number of species originate in South America (including the two largest genera, Anthurium and Philodendron with over 1500 species between them, the tropics of South East Asia are also very rich, with the large and horticulturally important genera Alocasia and Amorphophallus.

The Araceae contains several well-known cultivated foliage and flowering plants. e.g., Philodendron, Monstera, Spathiphyllum and Anthurium. A number of important food crops belong to the Araceae, e.g., taro (Colocasia esculenta), tannia or cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), elephant yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius), konjac (A. konjac) and giant yam (Cyrtosperma merkusii).

Members of the family are highly diverse in life forms, leaf morphology, and inflorescence characteristics. Life forms range from submerged or free-floating aquatics to terrestrial (sometimes tuberous), and to epiphytic or hemiepiphytic plants or climbers. Leaves range from simple and entire to compound and higly divided, and may be basal or produced from an aerial stem. The family Araceae is defined by bearing small flowers on a fleshy axis (spadix) subtended by a modified leaf(spathe). There is much variation on this theme.