I have a few great childhood memories of trudging through Shu Swamp Nature Preserve in Mill Neck, NY. It was there that I first encountered skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), the name, idea and smell of which is impossible to forget. Without knowing it, that may have been my introduction to the Araceae or arum family.
On the other hand, it may have been the better-known calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica, seen above), which is technically not a lily, but has been made famous by painters like Georgia O'Keefe and Diego Rivera. My introduction to the arum family may have come from one of those paintings. The calla lily is native to Africa but has become associated with Mexican culture. The genus Zantedeschia is named for the Italian botanist Giovanni Zantedeschi.
Less likely, but still possible, was an encounter with a Philodendron in, say, the lobby of a Florida hotel. Of course, I would have been too young to process a word like Philodendron, which is as massive and sprawling as the leaves of the plant itself.
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