ARACEAE

Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree

for Flowering Plants

monocots

CHARACTERS DIAGNOSTIC OF MONOCOTS: •herbaceous •branching sympodial•vascular bundles in stem scattered, closed [no interfascicular cambium developing] •tertiary veins without free endings •leaf base sheathing•pollen monosulcate•gynoecium three-parted•cotyledon 1•primary root present but unbranched, not persisting

• expanded here

covered in Araceae

CHARACTERS DIAGNOSTIC OF MONOCOTS: •branching sympodial

CHARACTERS DIAGNOSTIC OF MONOCOTS: •vascular bundles in stem scattered, closed [no interfascicular cambium developing]

ARACEAE Key Characters net venation, no dead-end

veinsspathe (inflorescence bract)spadix (thick spike)monocot numbers in

flowers

Colocasia esculenta -- TARO

Colocasia affinis

Zantedischia "cally lily"

Amorphophallus titanica

dicot-like secondary and tertiary veins in Anthurium, Araceae

textbook monocot veins

dicot

Acorus (sweetflag) – currently the most primitive monocot

taro (Colocasia esculenta) calcium oxalate raphides 500x:

photo by Tina Weatherby Carvalho

monosulcate pollen - Monstera

Gen

eral

Ang

iosp

erm

Rel

atio

ns -

-- S

olti

s et

al.

2008

No monosulcate pollen in descendants of this ancestor.

Mostly monosulcate pollen in early flowers and gymnosperms.

Monstera - hemiepiphyte with holes in leaves

Philodendron - juvenile stem ascending trunk of a balsa tree

Monstera inflorescences as fruit in the market

Montrichardia - monopodial, coastal swamp forests, looks like a treelet.

Pistia and Lemna – floating aquatics in the Araceae, but separate origins

Lemna

Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree

for Flowering Plants

monocots