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Syngonium
Syngonium is a genus of climbing tropical aroids in the Araceae family, most often grown as Syngonium podophyllum (arrowhead vine). Grow it warm and humid in bright indirect light, and expect juvenile houseplant leaves to become much more lobed with age.
Syngonium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to tropical rainforests in southern Mexico, the West Indies, and Central and South America. They are vines growing to heights of 10–20 m or more in trees. Their leaves change shape according to the plant's stage of growth; adult leaf forms are often much more lobed than the juvenile forms usually seen on small house plants. The scientific name of the genus comes from the Greek words σύν (syn - plus, z) and γονή (gone - gonada) and refers to the fused ovaries of female flowers.
Syngonium species are often grown as house plants, usually only in the juvenile foliage stages. They thrive in warm and humid conditions. Syngonium podophyllum is the most commonly cultivated species, and is often referred to simply as Syngonium. They are easy to propagate in water or soil through cuttings that include a node.
All parts of the plant contain sharp crystals of calcium oxalate. This can cause symptoms including gastric irritation, salivation, a tingling, burning, or swelling in the mouth area if ingested. Syngonium plants should be kept away from pets: toxic symptoms in animals including dogs, cats, and horses include oral irritation, mouth area swelling, excessive drooling, or difficulty swallowing.
Syngonium species generally inhabit tropical rainforests, subtropical forests, thickets, urban areas, and wetlands. Invasive species are also troublesome weeds, such as in banana fields.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Syngonium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
