Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Wonderful Plants
Type:
Picture
Chapter:
632.11.00
632.11.00 Araceae
English: Arum family.
Botany: 107 genera; 3700 species; temperate, tropical; cosmopolitan; rhizomes; leaves sheathing, net veined, simple to lobed or compound, with petiole; flowers in a spadix with spathe, small, unisexual or bisexual; raphides; fruit a berry.
Content: calcium oxalate; cyanogenic glycosides; hydroxytryptophane; sulphur compounds.
Use: food, starch; ornamental.
Taxonomy
In past classifications Araceae has been included in Arecales and Cyclanthacae, both families having spadix inflorencences. Lemnaceae, with the aquatics Lemna and Pistia are included in Araceae.
In the Apg3 classification Araceae is included in Alismatales, as the first diverging lineage.
In the Plant theory Araceae iis split off from Alismatales. Araceae is the only Family in the Order Arales, in the Subclass Aridae.
Introduction
The main themes come from the discrepancy between the Carbon series and Silicon series. They have difficulties combining communication and connecting with being themselves.
As a child they did not feel safe from their parents who may have maltreated them or were absent, unloving or neglectful. They can feel very unsafe and vulnerable in a dangerous world. They feel left alone by their parents and lost in the world.
They felt that more was asked from them than they were able to do or understand; they did not feel as if they were grown up enough for the situation. Situationally, they may be handicapped or adopted children, or children who were put into boarding school, residential care homes or orphanages. Or they were treated harshly at home, having to help at a young age as if they were teenagers. Their parents and relatives were not good at communication, so they have not learned to communicate.
As a teenager they were not acknowledged as such, but were treated like children who cannot handle responsibilities. They were not allowed to have contact with others, to have friends, a boyfriend or a girlfriend. They had to suppress their opinions and desires, their sexual feelings. There was no one to educate them in the art of love. In boarding schools, where dormitories are separate for boys and girls, they did not have contact with the opposite sex and learn to communicate with them. They have not learned how to connect and communicate; so their behaviour is often rough, rude, coarse, like an adult.
As an adult they do not know how to communicate very well, they are often people with few words. They may struggle with sexuality, love making and seducing. Men, especially, have a strong libido but it is crude, not cultivated or embedded in love. Their rough sexuality is resisted by women, as it is too direct, confrontational. They are left alone, excluded and rejected. They retire into their own world, avoiding all other contact out of shame for their sexuality and instincts.
The flowers reflect this discord. One the one hand there is the spathe, a stalk structure that resembles a phallus, with a lot of flowers on it. Then there is a bract, an often colourful leaf that takes on the function of a petal and protects and sometimes even completely covers the spathe. The bract can be seen as representative of the fig leaf which Adam and Eve took to cover their genitals after being expelled from paradise.
As an adult they can have a strong sympathy for children, especially threatened, vulnerable, maltreated children. They feel sympathy for their vulnerability. They can have a desire to have many children, to be there for them. They may adopt children. Or they may do the opposite and have no children, for fear that they will not be a good parent, that their children will inherit their genetic defects or that the world is too unsafe to have children.
Mind
Ailments from being maltreated as a child, abused, left alone.
Ailments from being an orphan, adopted.
Ailments from being maltreated as a teenager, abused, sent to boarding schools.
Ailments from humiliation.
Relationships and communication are difficult.
Secretive, hiding, shame, < sexuality.
Sexual desire increased, diminished, forbidden, < taboo.
Hysteria, fits that look like epilepsy.
Fiery, hot, impulsive, direct.
Seducing.
Making fun, practical jokes.
Unconscious; forgetful; absence of mind.
Irritable, restless, cross, stubborn, nervous, < children.
Discontent, frustrated, deception.
Angry, nagging, rude, rough, sarcastic, cynical, <.
Delirium, bores his nose, picks ends of fingers, one spot, dry lips until it is sore or bleeds.
Image: arrows with barbs; coition of cats, a penis with barbs.
Ailments from witchcraft.
Theme: death, funeral; devil, dragon, snake.
Dream: children, handicapped, adopted, lost.
Dream: losing children, relatives, parents, spouse.
General
Sensation: stinging; stabbing, burning, hot, fiery; clawing, benumbing; boring, poking, picking.
Weather: flushing of hand, face.
Sleep: sleepless, < itching, < sore throat and mouth, < vivid dreams.
Body
General: glandular enlargement.
Energy: languor and depression during asthma at night.
Discharge: offensive.
Head: headache with dull, heavy, < least intellectual effort.
Nose: hayfever, < pollen, < dust, < tobacco; discharges acrid, excoriating, makes nostril raw, lips sore, swollen.
Face: dermatitis, ulcers, crusts, oedema itching, lips, upper; of lips.
Mouth: dry; burning; irritation, aphthae, ulcers.
Throat: voice hoarse, lost, changing, breaking; change to male.
Lungs: asthma.
Heart: violent action, shakes chest wall.
Stomach: irritation.
Urinary: offensive urine, burning of urethra after micturition.
Male: irritation; phimosis; balanitis; epidydimits; urethritis; gonorrhoea; syphilis; genital herpes.
Female: vaginits; leucorrhoea; genital herpes.
Limbs: arthritis.