Syngonium podophyllum

Syngonium podophyllum, the Arrowhead Plant, is one of the most familiar and forgiving houseplants in the aroid family, prized for its glossy, arrow-shaped juvenile leaves that mature into deeply lobed, hand-like foliage as the plant ages and begins to climb. In the wild it grows as a hemiepiphytic vine scrambling up rainforest trunks; as a houseplant it stays compact and bushy for years without support. Its ease of care, rapid growth, and tolerance of low light have made it one of the most widely available and inexpensive aroids on the market, and it has been the source of dozens of named colour cultivars (including the boldly white-marbled 'Albo Variegatum' and the chartreuse-mottled 'Mojito') bred from this same plain green species.

Native range

Native to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean; naturalised and cultivated as a houseplant worldwide

Classification

Genus

Syngonium

Family

Araceae

Type

Wild

Growth habit

Bushy when young, climbing/trailing with age

Morphology

Leaf shape

Arrow-shaped (sagittateArrowhead-shaped leaves, with pointed lobes at the base pointing downwards.) when juvenile, deeply lobed when mature

Leaf length

10-20 cm

Leaf width

8-15 cm

Petiole colour

Green

Venation

PinnateVeins or lobes arranged like a feather, branching out symmetrically on both sides of a single main central vein.

Texture

Glossy, semi-waxy

Variegation

N/A: solid green leaf blade; the white-marbled 'AlboVariegation featuring stark white patches or sectors, which completely lack chlorophyll. Variegatum' and chartreuse-mottled 'Mojito' are selections bred from this species

Growth habit

Bushy juvenile, climbing/trailing mature