A NEW AUSTRALIAN GENUS OF ARACEAE, WITH NOTES ON GENERIC LIMITS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE AREAE

A monotypic aroid genus is described from Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia. The genus is diagnosed in the tribe Areae by its tubular spathe base divided into two chambers by an annular septum. The genus is most closely related to Sauromatum and to some Asiatic, not Australian, species of Typhonium. It is proposed that the geography of the Areae (including Arum, Dracunculus etc.) may now suggest a Gondwanan (rather than Laurasian) and hence Cretaceous (rather than much more recent) origin for the tribe, and its dual arrival in Malesia. © 1992.