ABSTRACT:

At the end of March a unique event in the history of aroid botany took place in Sarasota, Florida, when the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens hosted a symposium on the Systematics and Biology of the Araceae. The conference, organized and directed by Dr. Michael Madison, marked the coming together of specialists on the family from USA, Great Britain, West Germany, Yugoslavia, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, and India, and represented the largest gathering of aroid experts ever held.