Araceae

If you have ever seen an Anthurium, you have already met a member of the Araceae family. This is a family of unique plants with mostly foliage plants, but also plants with distinct flowers. The arum family (Araceae) consists of 114 genera and about 3,500 species of plants. This family consists of several thousand species found in the tropics (Old and New World) and northern temperate climates. They are distinctive and popular because of their inflorescence or leaf shape. The flowers are characterized by their inflorescence, called spadix. The flowers usually have a single leaf-like, conspicuously colored or white bract that attracts attention. Houseplants of the Araceae family include Philodendron, Dieffenbachia and Alocasia. Many flowers of members of this family emit a scent to attract arachnid insects that aid fertilization by transporting pollen from plant to plant. In fact, insects' sense of smell is superior to that of humans. We ourselves are not affected by the smell, we just find that some species smell stronger than others.