CaladioideaeEnglish: Angel wings; Elephant ears; Heart of Jesus.
Synonym: Calloideae; Amorphophalloideae.
Clades:
Araceae;
Arales;
Aridae;
Lilianae;
Angiospermae;
Plants.
Regions: America for genera like Caladium and Xanthosoma, Asia and Australia for Alocasia and Colocasia.
Habitats: tropica; wet forest floors, river basins, swamp margins; deeply shaded, highly humid understory environments; prefer rich, loose organic soil; in floodplains, heavy seasonal monsoon rains.
Members: Caladium, Syngonium (Arrowhead vine), Xanthosoma (Yautia), Alocasia, Colocasia (Taro).
Content: high concentrations of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals (raphides), causing intense localized irritation if consumed.
BotanyType: Perennial herbs; terrestrial, seasonally dormant or evergreen geophytes; low-growing to massive clump-forming forest understory plants.
Root: extensively fibrous systems arising from underground energy storage structures.
Stems: Modified entirely into thick subterranean corms, tubers, or dense creeping rhizomes; rarely producing upright aerial stems.
Leaves: strikingly large; long petioles; held horizontally or peltate (petiole attached near the center of the blade); deeply sagittate, arrow shaped or cordate, heart-shaped; intense variegation patterns, contrasting white, pink, red, and green veins or patches; margins are typically smooth or gently undulating.
Flowers: tiny; unisexual, monoecious; arranged on a spadix with female flowers clustered at the bottom, a middle zone of sterile flowers, and male flowers at the top; wrapped securely by a constricted, two-parted spathe (lower part forms a protective chamber around the female flowers, upper part opens wide and later drops off).
Reproduction: sexually, pollination via specialized beetle, Dynastinae scarab beetles, attracted by nocturnal heat and strong odors; asexually via the natural splitting and offsets of the underground corms or tubers.
Fruit: berries; fleshy; colorful ; in clusters.
GeneraThomsonieae: Amorphophallus,
Pseudodracontium,
ThomsoniaZomicarpeae: Filarum, Ulearum, Zomicarpa, Zomicarpella
Caladieae: Caladium, Chlorospatha, Filarum, Hapaline, Idimanthus, Jasarum, Scaphispatha, Syngonium, Ulearum, Xanthosoma, Zomicarpa, Zomicarpella