Did you know thath the water banana (Typhonodorum lindleyanum) is named for its resemblance to a banana plant, but is actually a large aquatic
aroid?
Water Banana - Typhonodorum
lindleyanum
Typhonodorum is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. The single species making up this genus is Typhonodorum
lindleyanum. The genus is native to Madagascar, the Comores, Zanzibar, and
Mauritius. This genus is believed to be closely related to Peltandra even though Peltandra is only found in North America and there don't appear to exist closely related genera in the African
mainland. There isn't fossil evidence to link the two genera so it has been proposed that there once was a genus in Africa from which the two genera had
originated. The African mainland genus spread to North America and to Madagascar 50 million years ago before it broke
off. Then the African genus became extinct and the North American and Madagascan genera
remained.
