Araceae

Perennial glabrous herbs usually with an acrid watery or milky juice. Rhizomes tuberous or elongated. Woody flowering stems present only in Gymnostachys. Leaves solitary or few. Flowers minute, crowded into a dense cylindrical spadix which is usually enclosed in a spathe, bisexual or unisexual, usually monoecious with the males in the upper part of the spadix and the females below, sometimes separated by sterile flowers or a bare interval. Perianth segments present in bisexual flowers, mostly absent from the others. Stamens 6 or less. Ovary superior or embedded in the spadix, 1- or 3-locular. Fruit a berry. 110 gen., mostly trop., some temp.