The Marantaceae or arrowroot family is a family of flowering plants known for its large starchy rhizomes. It is sometimes called the prayer-plant family. Combined morphological and DNA phylogenetic analyses indicate the family originated in Africa, although this is not the center of its extant diversity.1]
The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998), also recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Zingiberales in the clade commelinids in the monocots. The Marantaceae are considered the most evolved family in this group due to the extreme reduction in both stamens and carpels.
The family consists of 29 genera with 627 species, found in the tropical areas of the world except in Australia. The biggest concentration is in the America, with seven genera in Africa, and six in Asia.
The plants
usually have underground rhizomes or
tubers. The leaves are arranged in two rows with the petioles having a sheathing base. The leaf blade is narrow or broad with pinnate veins running parallel to the midrib. The petiole may be winged, and swollen into a pulvinus at the base. The inflorescence is a spike or panicle, enclosed by spathe-like bracts. The flowers are small and often inconspicuous, irregular and bisexual usually with an outer three free sepals and an inner series of three petaloid-like segments, tube-like in appearance. The fruit is either fleshy or a loculicidal capsule.
The most well known species in the family is arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), a plant of the Caribbean, grown in parts of the Caribbean, Australasia, and Sub-Saharan Africa for its easily digestible starch. It is grown commercially in the West Indies and tropical Americas.
Several species of genus Calathea are grown as houseplants for their large ornamen
tal leaves, which are variegated in
shades of green, white and pink. Other genera grown for houseplants includes Stromanthe and Maranta.
Calathea discolor has tough, durable leaves used to make waterproof baskets, and in the Caribbean and Central America, the leaves of Calathea lutea are used for roofing. Two Mexican species - C. macrosepala and C. violacea - have flowers that are cooked and used as vegetables. C. allouia, from the West Indies is known as Sweet Corn Root and has an edible tuber.
e Marantaceae or arrowroot family is a family of flowering plants known for its large starchy rhizomes. It is sometimes called the prayer-plant family. Combined morphological and DNA phylogenetic analyses indicate the family originated in Africa, although this is not the center of its extant diversity.1]
The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998), also recog
nizes this family, and assigns it to the order Zingiberales in the clade commelinids in the monocots. The
Marantaceae are considered the most evolved family in this group due to the extreme reduction in both stamens and carpels.
The family consists of 29 genera with 627 species, found in the tropical areas of the world except in Australia. The biggest concentration is in the America, with seven genera in Africa, and six in Asia.
The plants usually have underground rhizomes or tubers. The leaves are arranged in two rows with the petioles having a sheathing base. The leaf blade is narrow or broad with pinnate veins running parallel to the midrib. The petiole may be winged, and swollen into a pulvinus at the base. The inflorescence is a spike or panicle, enclosed by spathe-like bracts. The flowers are small and often inconspicuous, irregular and bisexual usually with an outer three free sepals and an inner series of three petaloid-like segments, tube-like in appearance. The fruit is either fleshy or a loculicidal capsule.
The most well known species in
the family is arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), a plant of the Caribbean, grown in parts of the Caribbean, Australasia, and Sub-Saharan Africa for its easily digestible starch. It is grown commercially in the West Indies and tropical Americas.
Several species of genus Calathea are grown as houseplants for their large ornamental leaves, which are variegated in shades of green, white and pink. Other genera grown for houseplants includes Stromanthe and Maranta.
Calathea discolor has tough, durable leaves used to make waterproof baskets, and in the Caribbean and Central America, the leaves of Calathea lutea are used for roofing. Two Mexican species - C. macrosepala and C. violacea - have flowers that are cooked and used as vegetables. C. allouia, from the West Indies is known as Sweet Corn Root and has an edible tuber.
^ Andersson, L; Chase MW (March 200
1). "Phylogeny and classification of Marantaceae". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
(Academic Press) 135 (3): 275?287. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2001.tb01097.x.
Marantaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: April 27, 2006.
Ed., V.H. Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World, Oxford Univ. Press (1978)
Lennart Andersson, The neotropical genera of Marantaceae. Circumscription and relationships, Nordic Journal of Botany, Volume 1 Issue 2, Pages 218 - 245 (2008)
Calathea is a genus of plants belonging to the family Marantaceae. There are several dozen species in this genus. Native to the tropical Americas, many of the species are popular as pot plants due to their decorative leaves and, in some species, colorful inflorescences. They are commonly called calatheas or (like their relatives) prayer plants. Several cultivars, e.g. Calathea cv. 'Silver Plate', have been bred. [more]
Donax is a genus of small, edible saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks. The genus is sometimes known as "bean clams"; however, Donax species have various different common names in different parts of the world. [more]
Rhizomes creeping.Basal leaves 1 or more; caulineleaf 1 or absent; leaf sheath and petiole long. Inflorescences borne basally or above an elongateinternode on leafy shoots, subtended by a cauline leaf or a reduced, bladeless sheath, compound, capitate, often with additional spikes borne in axils of basal bracts of initially producedspike and later additional ones in basal bracts of secondary spikes, often in a very compact, congested group of few to many small spikes; bracts spirally arranged, often shredding into fibers after anthesis, at least at apex.Flower pairs 2 to many per bract.Sepals usually longer than corollatube, membranous. Corolla tube proximally solid, distally hollow; lobes 3, oblong, subequal. Outer
staminodes 2, obovate, staminode tube longer than corolla tube; callose staminode wholly callose, not petaloid at apex. Stylecurved after tripping; stigma enlarged, blunted. Fruitglobose to ellipsoid, dehiscent, often late dehiscent; pericarp hard. Seeds 1--3; aril membranous.[1][more]
Phyllodes
In , the petiole is the small stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the stem. Clasping leaves of the Poaceae have an extra structure called the ligule. Petiolate leaves are ones where the petiole connects to the leaf before its apex. [more]
Rhizomes creeping.Basal leaves 1 or more; cauline leaves absent. Inflorescences borne terminally on leafy shoots or on separate, leafless shoots arising directly from rhizomes, spikelike, ellipsoid or spindle-shaped to subcylindric, usually laterally compressed; bractsdistichous, usually herbaceous.Flower pairs 1--5 per bract.Sepals less than 1/2 as long as corollatube, usually much shorter, membranous. Corolla proximally ± solid, distally hollow; lobes 3, oblong, subequal. Outer staminodes 2, obovate; callosestaminode wholly callose, not petaloid at apex.Ovary often 2-loculed by abortion.Stylecylindric, curved after tripping; stigma enlarged, blunted. Fruit ellipsoid, dehiscent.Seeds usually 2; arilreflexed, 2-lobed.[2][more]
Stromanthe
Stromanthe is a genus of in family Marantaceae. It contains the following species (but this list may be incomplete): [more]
Thalia
Plants aquatic, upright, often dying back to rhizome in winter [dry season], 1--3.5 m. Rhizome not evidently enlarged or specialized for starch storage. Stems unbranched below inflorescence; leaves allbasal or rarely with single caulineleaf borne aboveelongate (0.7--2.5 m) internode. Leaves homotropic; sheath not auriculate, spongy, containing prominentair spaces; bladeplain green, ovate to elliptic.Inflorescences branched, branches short and upright to elongate and arching; rachis internodes conspicuously zigzagged; bractsdeciduous, both bracts and prophylls falling with flower if fruit not set, leaving proximalportion of rachis bare, each bractsubtending 1 flower pair, herbaceous to leathery; prophylls not evidently keeled, membranous; secondary bracts absent; bracteoles absent. Flowers self-fertilizing [outcrossing], pale to dark purple (corolla and staminodes) ; sepalspersistent in fruit, 0.5--3 mm, membranous; corolla tube 1--6 mm, corolla lobessubequal to strongly unequal; outer staminode 1, petal-like, showy; callose staminode mainly fleshy, narrow apicalrim petal-like; cucullate staminode with 2 appendages, subterminal, finger-like; stylar movement helical when tripped; styles with 1 appendage, elongate, straplike. Fruitscapsules, 1-seeded, nearly globose to ellipsoid, pericarp thin, indehiscent.Seeds dark brown, nearly globose or ellipsoid, smooth; perispermcanals 2, curved; aril reduced. x = 6.[3][more]
^ Andersson, L; Chase MW (March 2001). "Phylogeny and classification of Marantaceae". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (Academic Press) 135 (3): 275?287. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2001.tb01097.x.
Marantaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: April 27, 2006.
Ed., V.H. Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World, Oxford Univ. Press (1978)
Lennart Andersson, The neotropical genera of Marantaceae. Circumscription and relationships, Nordic Journal of Botany, Volume 1 Issue 2, Pages 218 - 245 (2008)
Delin Wu & Helen Kennedy "Phrynium". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 379. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
"Stachyphrynium". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 381. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
"Thalia". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
