Introduction

Peter C. Boyce

doi:10.36253/jopt-9207

Abstract

The five papers in the Araceae special section of this issue of Webbia are noteworthy for authorships which embrace Araceae research stretching back from the present day to the mid-1970s.

Highlights

Michael Grayum, began work on the Araceae began during a16 months posting as a resident researcher at Finca La Selva, Costa Rica, between 1978–1980 when he became fascinated by one of the most diverse and taxonomically challenging plant families at the site
After leaving La Selva Mike enrolled as a graduate student University of Massachusetts (Amherst) undertaking a survey of Araceae pollen using scanning-electron microscopy, complemented by an extensive literature review and pioneering the use of cladistic techniques to work out a phylogenetic classification
The radical new phylogenetic classification was presented at the second international workshop on aroid systematics at Harvard Forest in 1984 and published by in 1990 (Grayum 1990) and followed by a comprehensive survey of pollen morphology (Grayum 1992)

Summary

Introduction

Michael Grayum, began work on the Araceae began during a16 months posting as a resident researcher at Finca La Selva, Costa Rica, between 1978–1980 when he became fascinated by one of the most diverse and taxonomically challenging plant families at the site. In 2003 based principally on field studies in Costa Rica over a 20-year period (1978–1998), the treatment of Araceae for the Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica (initiated in 1986) was published (Grayum 2003). Alistair Hay has been working on the Araceae, in the Malesian region, for more than forty years.

Results

Conclusion