ABSTRACT:

The largely tropical monocot family Araceae, comprising about 105 genera and 3,500 species in the world (Li Heng, 1993), is an apparently natural and easily recognizable group. In Western Ghats of Maharashtra (India), the taxa of AIaceae are thriving well in both plains and hilly regions. The plants belonging to AIaceae are taxonomically interesting, showing varied habitats. The aim of the present work is to obtain chromosome data of as many hitherto unstudied genera as possible. The cytological work of AIaceae is well known. The chromosome numbers have so far been determined for more than 700 species from intraspecific taxa (Petersen, 1989, 1993) belonging to 99 of the 105 genera presently recognized (Bogner & Nicolson, 1991; Hay, 1992; Li Heng & Hay, 1992) _ The present study reports the chromosome numbers of nine species for the first time.