1. ARACEAE

2. Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree for Flowering Plants
monocots
Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree for Flowering Plants

6. 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

7. CHARACTERS DIAGNOSTIC OF MONOCOTS:
branching sympodial

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

9. ARACEAE
Key Characters
net venation, no dead-end veins
spathe (inflorescence bract)
spadix (thick spike)
monocot numbers in flowers

10. Colocasia esculenta -- TARO
Colocasia affinis

11. Zantedischia "cally lily"

12. Amorphophallus titanica

13. dicot dicot-like secondary and tertiary veins in Anthurium, Araceae
textbook monocot veins
Croat lexicon for Anthuirum:
dicot

14. Acorus (sweetflag) – currently the most primitive monocot

15. taro (Colocasia esculenta) calcium oxalate raphides 500x:
photo by Tina Weatherby Carvalho

16. monosulcate pollen
- Monstera

17. General Angiosperm Relations --- Soltis et al. 2008
No monosulcate pollen in descendants of this ancestor.
Mostly monosulcate pollen in early flowers and gymnosperms.

18. Monstera - hemiepiphyte with holes in leaves

19. Philodendron - juvenile stem ascending trunk of a balsa tree

21. Monstera inflorescences as fruit in the market

22. Montrichardia - monopodial, coastal swamp forests, looks like a treelet.
infl picture:
Known in some countries as Moco-Moco, the leaves are said to be the favourite food of manatees. The non-green parts, especially fruits in the fruiting head (spadix) are edible - the seeds can be roasted. Commonly eaten where they occur along the Orinoco delta Brucher (1989) . In Surinam a milky juice in the stem is used to treat deep cuts (external) and against nose bleeds.

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

24. Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree for Flowering Plants
monocots
Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree for Flowering Plants