What are Aroids?

So, what is an Aroid plant?

It turns out that the word Aroids is an informal name for the members of the arum family, which is another name for the Araceae plant family.  The Araceae family is the third largest family of monocots and is composed of 114 genera and 3,750 flowering plant species (Britannica).

This diverse family of flowering plants is classified by the flowers usually referred to as inflorescence.  Unlike a common flower, the flowers of the Araceae family serve a different purpose.  More on this later but going back to the inflorescence, it should be noted that it is composed of a spadix surrounded by a single leaf like structure known as Spathe or bract.

When it comes to the plants themselves, we may be familiar with some of the well-known genera like Anthurium, Alocasia, Caladium, Monstera, and Philodendron.  However, members of this family have a worldwide distribution so there are still more plants to be classified.  They could be terrestrial, aquatic, or epiphytic just like the many varieties of this plant family.  With this much diversity, we might even get a new genus in the future.

 What do you think?

Petruzzello, Melissa. "list of plants in the family Araceae". Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-plants-in-the-family-Araceae-2075376. Accessed 22 January 2022.