Welcome to the European Aroid Society
Latest news to be announced here!
EAS Geneva Garden Visit
We’re excited to announce the sign up for our next event! Join us on Friday 11th October in Geneva for an exclusive visit of the rich and historical collections of Geneva Conservatory and Botanical Garden, the largest public botanical garden in Switzerland. The botanical garden includes a living collection of 14.000 species from 249 different families from around the world, a historical herbarium with nearly six million botanical specimens and a very famous library containing 120.000 books, one of the finest botanical library in the world. More info here: https://www.cjbg.ch/
The sign up for this event will open on Sunday 4th of August at 21:00 GMT+2. There will be 30 places available. The event will be free.
Important notice: This event is only open to people who are current members of the European Aroid Society. Partners will need to register prior to signing up for the event. Want to be present? Join or Renew today!
Virtual Mini Symposium: Studies on Central American Philodendrons!
Happy New Year! We’re proud to announce a new virtual symposium: Studies on Central American Philodendrons! Join us Saturday 13th of January at 14 PM CET on Zoom to hear some of the most important aroid botanists of Asia talk about new discoveries and revelations in the scientific community. Read more about the event here or click the banner. Want to be present? Join or Renew today!
This event is only open to members of the European Aroid Society via Zoom. The link to the Zoom meeting will be distributed 5 days before the event.
Virtual Mini Symposium: Recent Discoveries on Aroids of South-East Asia
On November 26th at 11AM CET we will hold our first mini symposium! Several of the most important aroid botanists of Asia will be present and give lectures about their discoveries, revelations and the current state of affairs. The symposium will be recorded and the recording will be made available a week after the event. Read more about the event here or click the banner. Want to be present? Join or Renew today!
Through affiliation with our sister society, members of the Aroid Society of Australia are also welcome and encouraged to join the event.
Timetable
11:00 – 12:00 Revisiting the chaos – and The Shape of Things to Come by Wong Sin Yeng & Peter Boyce
12:00 – 12:15 Break
12:15 – 12:45 Recent Discoveries on Aroids of Vietnam: Period 2017 – 2022 by Nguyen Van Dzu
12:45 – 13:00 Break
13:00 – 13:30 Discovery through citizen science: On the identity of Cryptocoryne pygmaea Merr. (Araceae) from Western Mindanao and description of three new Philippine endemic species by Marc Arcebal K. Naive
Unfortunately the lecture by Marc Arcebal K. Naive has been cancelled due to personal circumstances. A new date will be arranged.
EAS General Assembly
On November 20th at 8pm CET we will hold the annual General Assembly for the European Aroid Society. Members have the chance to elect new board members and help decide the future of the society. The GA will be chaired by our president David Scherberich, and minutes will be recorded by our current recording secretary. If unable to attend, minutes will be made available upon request after the meeting. Want to be present? Join or Renew today!
Agenda:
1. Welcome & a word about the past year of EAS.
2. Synopsis of financial report & projection for 2023.
3. Various committee reports.
4. Election of new board members.
5. Any other business & questions.
As some of you may have noticed already, we have a new membership card! 🤩 Everyone who renews their membership will receive one of these alongside the Gearum brasiliense pin. Pictured on this card is a collection of seasonally dormant aroids native to Southern Europe and the Canary Islands, drawn by the talented Nelly Le Reste (@nellylereste).
Learn more about these fascinating plants here: https://www.aroid.eu/european-aroids/
(From left to right: Helicodiceros muscivorus, Arisarum vulgare, Biarum davisii, Dracunculus canariensis)
EAS summer event: EAS Social Kew
We are excited to finally reveal to you our next summer event. Join us Friday 8th of July in London, UK, where we will explore one of the most famous gardens of the world: Kew Gardens! With beautifully curated greenhouses and outside gardens, this botanical garden is a must-see for all plant-lovers. Their tropical and temperate aroid collections are among the most diverse in the world, with many Brazilian and Asian taxa. Normally closed, Kew will even open its nursery greenhouses to EAS members for a special peek in the private aroid collections.
This event is only open to members.
Note: Partners are welcome, but need to be paying members of the EAS and need to sign up for the event too.
We are pleased to announce our new pin to add to your collection! Make sure to sign up or renew your EAS membership, as you will receive one of these beauties in the mail! Starting now, we will reveal a new collectible pin every year. Missed out on our original pin? The old pins will still be available in our shop (while stocks last). Our first year has been a great success with over 700 aroid aficionados from all over joining us to share the passion of the aroid family. Want to be the first one to hear about new events, articles and talks? Join or Renew today!
About the pin:
Kindly designed by Min Lee for the EAS, it features the little-known aroid Gearum brasiliense, found only in Brazil. It’s a seasonally dormant tuberous geophyte occurring in annually flooded savannahs. The large spicily scented blooms appear before the pedate leaves emerge. The species was first collected in October 1828 by William J. Burchell, although the exact locality remained unclear. In 1996 Josef Bogner using, as it turned out, an inaccurate interpretation of Burchell’s fieldnotes tried to locate Gearum but failed. Then, a few years later a specimen collected in 1978 but for decades mis-filed as a Xanthosoma, was located in a Brazilian herbarium and based on this new information Josef was able to bring living plants into cultivation for the first time! The story about Gearum perfectly encapsulates the inexhaustible passion for aroids Josef Bogner had, with the pin serving as an homage to him as the greatest modern European aroider, one who is dearly missed.
Note: The pin is also available for purchase in the shop.
EAS turned 1 on June 27th! We reached over 700 members and feel so grateful for this enormous support from aroid enthusiasts all over the world! We have managed to organise 3 in-person events as well as a few online lectures in the past year, and this is only the beginning. The future holds many more events across Europe, opportunities to meet and share and learn from each others experience. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for any comment or any idea that you would like to share with us, this society is yours before anything. Thank you all. We look forward to hearing from you!
Don’t forget to renew your membership to receive the new membership gift!
EAS spring event: EAS Meise Garden Visit
We’re excited to finally announce our spring event! Join us on Saturday 30th of April in Meise, Belgium for an exclusive visit of the botanical gardens. We’ll organise guided tours, a special preview, visit to the herbarium & more. 30 places available, a ticket will cost 25€ pp and includes garden entry, coffee and lunch at the garden. Sign up opens this Sunday 20th March 2022! For members only.
This event is only open to members. You must able to present a EU Digital COVID Certificate or similar, wearing a mask is mandatory in closed spaces such as greenhouses.
First EAS in person event: EAS Social Lyon!
We’re excited to announce our first in-person event! Join us on Friday 29th of October in Lyon, France to explore Europe’s largest aroid collection together with other aroiders. There will be guided visits, aroid talks and a plant swap, all set in the gorgeous botanical garden of Lyon. Spaces are limited due to COVID restrictions, so don’t miss out! 30 people max, sign up opens next Sunday 3rd October at 9:00 pm GMT+2.
This event is only open to members. You must able to present a EU Digital COVID Certificate or similar, wearing a mask is mandatory in closed spaces such as greenhouses.
September Online Aroid Talk: Fantastic Aroids And How to Identify Them
*DATE CHANGED TO SUNDAY 26TH OF SEPTEMBER*
We’re proud to announce the first of multiple exciting events coming up this autumn!
Where the jungles of Borneo in our last talk was about genus diversity, the neotropics have the most species! Together Anthurium and Philodendron consist of thousands of species, likely more than half of all aroids together! But just what exactly makes a Philodendron, a Philodendron? Or how can you be sure your plant is an Anthurium instead? Join us Saturday 25th of September at 4 PM GMT +2 on Zoom to hear online aroid legend Siddharth Naveenachandran answer these and other questions, asked by YOU!
Follow this link or click on the button to learn more about this interactive talk (members only).
October Aroid Pop-Up in Alnarp, Sweden
The people from @plantthatplant are organizing an in-person aroid pop up with sales and lectures at the Swedish Agricultural University in Sweden. Several great Swedish vendors will be selling a large range of aroids! The society will be present with merch and our Swedish country rep, Robin Deniz, will be giving a talk on Anthurium pollination. Other speakers include well-known Monstera expert Marco Cedeño Fonseca and the legendary Marc Gibernau from France who will talk about wild aroid pollination! There will also be an auction where you can bid on some real aroid gems.
Tickets are €20 and proceeds of the event and auction will be donated to support our society, so grab them while you can!
Buy your tickets through here or follow the link:
https://aroid-pop-up.confetti.events/
44th IAS Annual Show and Sale
On the weekend of September 11-12, the annual show and sale event of the International Aroid Society will be held at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida, USA. This is one of the most important aroid events of the year, with aroiders coming to Florida from all over the globe! Acclaimed aroid botanist Orlando Ortiz will be the featured speaker at the banquet, talking about the micro-endemic aroids of Panama.
Join the International Aroid Society here. If you want to learn more about the annual show and sale of the IAS on their website here or purchase tickets on Fairchild’s website here!
On The Ledge podcast episode
A few weeks ago, our Honorary President Peter Boyce was invited on the popular On The Ledge podcast by Jane Perrone. In episode 193, Peter talked with Jane about our newly-formed society and what aroids are. Moreover they discussed how to mature climbing aroids on wood, some exciting new taxonomic insights and featured a very special vanilla-smelling aroid from Borneo.
Listen to the podcast here or follow this link: https://www.janeperrone.com/on-the-ledge/aroids-peter-boyce
An exciting first event!
On Saturday July 17th, it was time for the first of our aroid talks. None other than our Honorary President, Peter Boyce, guided us through the jungles of Asia in search of aroids! You can rewatch the talk here!
Peter Boyce (1964) is an aroid botanist who, together with his wife Wong Sin Yeng, has dedicated the larger part of the last two decades to understanding the taxonomy of enigmatic Asian aroids, describing hundreds of new species in the process. Not only a renowned scientist, Peter is also a skilled nurseryman and takes care of their scientific collection of 3000 living plants on Borneo, most of which are grown no where else in the world!
The mottled inflorescence of Colletogyne perrieri Buchet, a tuberous aroid from Madagascar. Photo by Nils Weessies.
Galantharum kishii P.C.Boyce & S.Y.Wong from Borneo. Photo by Peter Boyce.
Cross section of the inflorescence of Ambrosina bassii L. Photo by Josef Bogner.
Ulearum donburnsii Croat & Feuerstein from South America. The filiform (hair-like) staminodes likely help to attract pollinators by spreading odour. Photo by Nils Weessies.
Callopsis volkensii Engl. from Africa. Photo by Nils Weessies.
Lysichiton americanus Hultén & H.St.John from North America. Photo by Fred Muller.