Welcome To California Aroids!
Hi, my name is C.J. Addington. I’m a high school physics teacher in the Central Valley of California, and an amateur collector and grower of Aroid plants. Here in our Mediterranean-like climate, we Californians can grow a wide variety of these exciting and unusual plants, and I have spent the last few years learning to grow many of them myself. I am starting this site to share what I have learned with other Aroid growers, and to help more people to discover the fun and reward of taking care of these amazing living things! I am very interested in trading plants, so if you see anything here that interests you, drop me a line! With pictures and growing Tips! (16 links, only 4 live right now) Amorphophallus Arisaema Arisarum Arum Colocasia Dracunculus Gonatopus Helicodiceros Peltandra Pinellia Remusatia Sauromatum Spathicarpa Typhonium Zamioculcas Zantadeschia	Me and one of my favorite "flowers" -- The "Dragon Arum" of the Mediterranean, Dracunculus vulgaris
Q. What is an “Aroid” exactly? A. Aroids are plants in the family called Araceae, a large and widely distributed family containing over 3,000 different species. All Aroids have their tiny flowers arranged on a thin spike, called a “spadix”, and wrapped up in a specialized leaf, called a “spathe”. This spathe-and-spadix arrangement looks from the outside like a single flower, but is actually an “inflorescence”, or mutli-flower structure. Anyone who has seen a common Calla Lily, an tropical Anthurium or a forest-dwelling Jack-In-The-Pulpit, will recognize this unique floral design. Aroid blooms range in size from the nearly-microscopic in the case of Duckweed, to the gigantic, as in the Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, which can be bigger than a grown man! Q. What are Aroids good for? A. Aroids have many uses around the world. Many of the blooms are highly ornamental, and are seen in expensive bouquets, such as Calla Lilies and Anthuriums. Other Aroids have decorative foliage and make great houseplants, such as Pothos, Dieffenbachia, Philodendron, Spathiphyllum and Aglaonema. Some make large tubers and corms that are eaten as food, such as Taro (Colocasia esculenta), Yautia (Xanthosoma sagittifolia) and Elephant Yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius). Q. So what’s the big deal about Aroids?! A. Aside from their usefulness, Aroids are cool! They do some very strange and odd things that make them worth collecting. Some smell wonderful, others smell like rotting dogs. Some are pollinated by fruit flies and bees, others by carrion flies and corpse beetles. Some make blooms that look like silk and velvet, others resemble the hairy skin of a dead horse. In short, there is something for everyone in this weird and wonderful plant family! LINKS TO OTHER GROWERS, NURSERIES AND ORGANIZATIONS CONTACT ME! : C. J. Addington, cjaddington@earthlink.net