pronounced: uh-RAY-see-eye
Araceae is derived from the Greek αρον (aron), their name for Arum italicum, the cuckoo-pint, known by the Romans as arum. The vast majority of the members of this family occur in the New World tropics. They are generally known as aroids. Members of the family are highly diverse in form, ranging from submerged or free-floating aquatics to terrestrial, and to epiphytes and climbers; usually there are calcium oxalate crystals, and commonly a milky sap.
The leaves range from simple to entire to compound and highly divided, and may be basal or produced from an aerial stem.
The inflorescence is always a spadix with either bisexual or unisexual flowers (sometimes with a sterile region), surrounded by a spathe. Very rarely the spathe is absent.
