Common name: arrowhead vine
Syngonium podophyllum Schott APNI* Description: Climber to over 10 m high on supporting vegetation. Stems 1–2.5 cm wide. Sap milky.
Distinguished by juvenile simple arrowhead shaped leaves and thin adult leaves with 5–11 leaflets. Leaves alternate, adult leaves with leaf stalks 10–60 cm long, median adult leaflet 16–38 cm long, 6–17 cm wide.
Flowers in spadixes, 4–11 spadixes per axil. Flowers enclosed in a cream-white to green spathe 9–11 cm long, male flowers above the female flowers.
Fruit a red to reddish-orange berry when ripe. Seeds black or brown.
Distribution and occurrence: Native from Mexico to French Guiana, Brazil and Bolivia and to the Caribbean Islands. Naturalised also on Pacific Islands, South Africa and Florida. Spread mostly by cultivation and dumping of garden refuse. It is a weed of rainforests, woodlands, riparian areas and disturbed sites. There are a number of variegated cultivars that have also naturalised in Australia.
NSW subdivisions: *NC
Text by J.R. Hosking
Taxon concept: Croat, T.B. (1981). A revision of Syngonium (Araceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 68: 565–651.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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