The genera of Arales in the southeastern United States

Abstract

The Arales (Spathiflorae), in the view of most authors, include only the families Araceae and Lemnaceae, the latter representing highly reduced plants of aroid ancestry. A much broader interpretation of the order is the one of Wettstein, who included in his "Spadiciflorae" not only the Araceae and Lemnaceae, but also the Palmae and Cyclanthaceae. Other authors (e.g., K. Fritsch, Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 50a: 162-184. 1932) have interpreted this group as including also the families Pandanaceae, Sparganiaceae, and Typhaceae. Such an interpretation of the order is subject to considerable disagreement, and these families may indeed not be very closely related to each other.