Skip to main content

Arrowhead vine (Syngonium podophyllum)

Goosefoot-plant or arrowhead vine (Syngonium podophyllum) is a plant species, having arrow-shaped leaves with three alternating lobes that have size, color and shape that vary with age and variety is Syngonium podophyllum var. albolineatum, Syngonium podophyllum var. oerstedianum and Syngonium podophyllum var. peliocladum.

S. podophyllum grows on the surface or climbs. Widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in many tropical countries and has at least 10 cultivars. The main difference is in the position and extent of the cream or white. Some leaves are almost entirely white, pink or yellow.

Dlium Arrowhead vine (Syngonium podophyllum)

Young leaves have a simple and intact shape, a convoluted pulse or a silvery-white center that is bounded by green. Mature leaves are compound in color, dark green, segmented into three leaflets and grow with 5-9 leaflets as they age.

Leaves and stems contain poisonous milk gums. Leaflets are generally dark green at the top and pale green at the bottom. It has 4-11 spadix which grow on leaf axils, each consisting of 6-9 tubular flowers, green, covered in creamy white to green leaves.

The fruit is red to reddish orange with many black or brown seeds in a soft grayish pulp. But it is very rare to bear fruit even in its original range. Seedlings have one to several simple leaves in sagittate while mature plants have very varied leaf compounds.

Arrowhead vine requires moist soil, good and fertile drainage on sandy and loamy soils in pH 5.5-6.5. Plants prefer shady conditions in tropical forests and premontane wet forests at altitudes up to 1000 m but more abundant at 100-500 m.



Goosefoot-plant reproduces almost entirely vegetatively from a single node because it rarely produces viable seeds in the original range. Many specimens are sterile and have no flowers. But in Sumatra many are found to be flowering and fruitful which indicates that there are effective pollinators present.

S. podophyllum can form dense populations that replace the surrounding vegetation, have the ability to spread under the shade of intact forests, form solid mats on the forest floor and climb trees that give heavier weights so that they are more susceptible to falling by the wind.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Genus: Syngonium
Species: S. podophyllum

Popular Posts

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Javanese grasshopper (Valanga nigricornis)

Wooden grasshopper or Javanese grasshopper ( Valanga nigricornis ) is an animal species of Acrididae, grasshoppers that have at least 18 subspecies, insects with very wide diversity in color and size, sexual dimorphism in which females are larger in size and paler in color. V. nigricornis in males has a length of 45-55 millimeters and females 15-75 mm. The head is square and green or yellow or brown or black in color. A pair of antennas has a black color. The eyes are large and gray or white or brownish. The hind legs are very large and have a green or yellow or brown or black color, plain or brindle. The limbs have two rows of large and long spines with black tips facing backward. The wings have a length exceeding the belly, a rough surface and are brown or green or yellow or black in color with pulse lines forming spaces filled with black color. The hind wings are rose red which will be visible when flying. Nymphs are pale green or yellow or brown or blackish in color. Javanese gr...

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...