Info about Marantaceae

Not Aroids, I know, but does anyone know of sources of information about their relatives, the Marantaceae? Written or on the net.

 

The family Marantaceae does not fall into the plant families I collect or study but you can find some scientific photos and data on the Missouri Botanical Garden website TROPICOS. Most appear to be found naturally in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and the Caribbean while some species are found in the United States, Africa, SE Asia and the tropical Pacific. There appears to be approximately 54 genera in the family including the arrow root plants, Prayer Plant and Calathea species.

I can't find anything scientific that would suggest they are closely related to the family Araceae (aroids) since the family does not appear to produce a spathe.

http://www.tropicos.org/Name/42000369

 

Thanks Steve, I must have been dreaming. Now to look among the gingers!

 

If you have a photo of the inflorescence please post it and maybe we can direct you to good info.

 

Ian, the Marantas are part of the order of Gingers, and so if you're looking for scientific data on them, look for the publications for that order. The Flora of North America and The Flora of China both have good entries. There's also some good stuff in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz' The Families of Flowering Plants

 

Thanks Steve and Lorax. Being a gardener rather than a botanist, I have, as well as Aroids, quite a few Calatheas, some Ctenanthes and Marantas and one Stromanthe in the garden. There is Deni Brown's book and other info on the net about Aroids. A few useful places about Calatheas. But very little about the rest of the Marantaceae. I would like to know a bit more about what I grow and what else might be worth a try in Sydney, where we would like to be more tropical.

 

I ran into the same situation while gathering the small amount of information I posted. It appears there is less information around on the family Marantaceae than on Araceae. I would suggest you try looking up the names of individual species you are trying to learn about using the Missouri Botanical Gardens website TROPICOS. TROPICOS often shows photos but if you look at the top of the page most of the time you will find a link which will tell you the plant's distribution. The link "specimens" will bring up a list of plants collected for that garden and if you go over and click on the accession and/or collection number to the right of the page you will often find the botanists field notes. Often they also list texts from which research material has been extracted so you may be able to use that info to find the text.

Also try the International Plant Names index, the Kew's New World Checklist and any other scientific site you can find. I realize how difficult your search may be since I run into the problem almost every day.

 

Thanks Steve. I now realise that I have not been using Tropicos to the full extent. The Kew checklist I find useful to find if there is really a species with the name I have bought a plant as, or if it is just a seller's name.

 

Just my opinion but I find TROPICOS to offer more information than any other botanical site. The Kew's various sites are excellent but rarely offer as much information with the exception a few of their advanced sites explain in greater detail why some synonym names are no longer valid since they were granted after the original name.

I didn't know about all the details on TROPICOS until I spent some time last Fall in Dr. Croat's office and he showed me the inner workings of the site. Especially with aroids you can read almost all his personal field notes written over the past 40 years. Many times when the original published description is only available in Latin, German, Spanish or another language other than English you can find almost all the technical characteristics of the aroid by clicking on "specimens" and then reading ALL Tom's personal field notes which can be found by simply clicking on his collection number to the right of the page.

One other important feature is Tom often lists the new and yet-to-be published aroid species he is working on prior to their actual publication. The Kew will never list a plant until it is actually published but many of the newer species which are available for sale out of Ecuador by Ecuagenera can be found on TROPICOS since Tom is nearing completion of his papers. I find that very useful since one of my collection specialties is to try to acquire as many of the aroid species Dr. Croat has named and published as space will allow.