Family and Genus Descriptions

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fructescence consisting of numerous fruits clustered

around the spadix to form a compact structure. Fruit
cream-yellow, orange, or red when mature. Seeds
very small, usually many per fruit; a few species with
one seed per fruit. Distribution: Mexico to Peru.

Araceae - Syngonium (2.96x; 7.11 x 4.64)

Xanthosoma Schott. Terrestrial herbs to 3 m tall.

Araceae - Philodendron (26.03x; 1.04 x 0.27)
Leaves sagittate with large basal lobes, the veins con-
spicuously anastomosing, irregular. Spathe cadu-
cous. Infructescence consisting of fruits clustered
loosely around the spadix. Fruit yellow when mature.
Distribution: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

Araceae - Xanthosoma (13.97x; 1.63 x 1.02)

Araceae - Philodendron (6.56x; 9.06 x 4.35)

ARALIACEAE
Shrubs or trees, rarely hemiepiphytes. Leaves alter-
nate, simple, bipinnate, or palmately compound. Stip-
ules large and persistent. Infructescence terminal.
Fruit a berry. Cosmopolitan family of temperate and
tropical regions.

Dendropanax Decne. et Planchón. Trees to 6 m

tall. Leaves simple, entire when adults, or sometimes
trilobed in juvenile form. Leaves and petioles variable
in size, somewhat trinerved from the base. Styles per-
sistent. Fruit a berry, to 0.7 cm diameter, black when
mature. Seeds 5–7 per fruit. Plants used for honey pro-
duction, the wood used in carpentry, plywood, and
Araceae - Philodendron (63.49x; 1.11 x 0.29)

Syngonium Schott. Hemiepiphytic climbers.

Leaves 3- to 5-lobed. Veins anastomosing. Spathe
completely enveloping spadix, caducous, yellow
when mature. Infructescence consisting of numerous
fruits clustered loosely around the spadix. Fruit with
thin, brownish exocarp when mature, the mesocarp
white, sweet. Seeds many per fruit. Distribution:
Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

Araliaceae - Dendropanax (6.83x; 3.88 x 2.29)