FIVE NEW RECORDS OF AROIDS FOR BANGLADESH

The family Araceae de Juss. is represented by 110 genera and 1,800 species mostly throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world with few in the temperate regions (Cronquist, 1981). The family is represented in Bangladesh by 30 genera and 89 species including wild and cultivated (Ara, 2007). Hooker (1893) and Prain (1903) have previously reported 30 and 27 species of the Araceae respectively, from the area now in Bangladesh. Rahman and Toha (2001) and Toha et al. (2004) reported some aroids as new distributional records for Bangladesh. In the last decade or so, extensive field trips throughout the country have been made by the first author which resulted in several new records of the Araceae for Bangladesh (Ara 2001, 2007). The first author collected a large number of specimens of the family Araceae from different parts of Bangladesh and identified them up to species. After confirmation of the identity of all the specimens it has been confirmed that none of the following five species viz. Amorphophallus excentricus Hett., A. krausei Engl., Colocasia virosa Kunth, Steudnera gagei Krause and Xanthosoma undipes (K. Koch) K. Koch have been reported from the area of Bangladesh in any relevant literature, such as, Hooker (1893), Prain (1903), Heinig (1925), Sinclair (1956), Mia and Khan (1995), Rahman (1997), Rahman (2004a, 2004b) and Ara (2007). Therefore, these five species of Araceae have been treated here as the new records for Bangladesh.