Genus: Arum

Genus description:

Stock a tuber. Leaves petiolate, hastate to sagittate. Spathe withering befor fruit is ripe, the lower part with overlapping margines. Sapdix with long appendix. Flowers unisexual, withuot perianth, the male separated from the female, but not widely. Strile flowers usally present, both between male and female and above the male (rarely very few or absent). Stamens 3-4. Ovary 1-locular; berry red; seeds 1-6.

The form of the tuber is of taxonomic importance; There are two main types. A verticulate tuber is discoid or depressed-globose, with the shoot apearing from nera the centre of the upper surface. A horizontal tuber is irregularly cylindrical, with the axis of the cylinder horizontal and the shoot appearing at one end of the axis. Young tubers are often abberant in form; The character should be judged by inspection od several mature tubers.

Species and images: