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Common name: Arrowhead Plant, Hongngu (Manipuri)
Botanical name: Syngonium spp. Family: Araceae (arum family)
Arrowhead plants are such interesting indoor plants t0
have earned several fun common names, including arrowhead plants,
five-fingers, Nephytis (after the Greek mythological figure Nephthys) and
goosefoot. Some of the common names refer to the shape of the leaves at
different stages of development. Grown as houseplants since at least 1881,
they are closely related to the philodendron. Though the ancestors of these
lovely plants from tropical Mexico and central America were mostly plain
green, there are new varieties with subtle shades of bronze and pink seeming
to blush onto the leaf-blade from the region of the stem. Syngoniums look
great grown alone or can add character to a mixed planting. They even make a
good substitute for caladiums in the summer garden. Arrowhead plants will
spill out of a hanging basket when they are young or climb a pole as they
mature. When they mature the arrowhead shape of the leaves changes and lobes
develop at the base of the leaves. The older the plant is, the more lobes the
full-sized leaves will have.
Because the sap from syngonium is an irritant, it will appear on lists of
poisonous plants. Flowers are on upright calyxes covered by a green
leaf-like spathe.
| Photographed in the Garden of Five
Senses, Delhi. |
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