The genus Tacca, which includes the batflowers and arrowroot, consists of flowering plants in the order Dioscoreales, native to tropical regions of South America, Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, and various Oceanic islands.

[3][4] Many Tacca species have nearly black flowers, with conspicuous involucral bracts and bracteoles like whiskers.

[5] Engbert Drenth hypothesized that species of this genus attracted "carrion and dung flies" for pollination and that the fleshy seam of the seed might be attractive to ants and hence that ants might aid in seed dispersal.

Dahlgren recognised the similarities to the genera within the Dioscoreales, and incorporated the family into that order.

The well-known T. chantrieri goes by the names of black batflower, bat-head lily, devil flower or cat's whiskers.