About Typhonodorum lindleyanum Schott
Typhonodorum is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, meaning the genus contains only one recognized species: Typhonodorum lindleyanum. This genus is native to Madagascar, the Comores, Zanzibar, Réunion, and Mauritius. It is thought to be closely related to the genus Peltandra, despite Peltandra occurring only in North America and no close relatives of Typhonodorum being found on mainland Africa. No fossil evidence currently exists to connect the two genera. To explain this distribution pattern, researchers have proposed that the two genera descended from an ancestral genus that once existed in Africa. This ancestral African genus spread to North America and to Madagascar 50 million years ago, before Madagascar separated from the African mainland. After this spread, the original ancestral mainland African genus went extinct, leaving only the descendant Peltandra in North America and Typhonodorum in its current island range.
