Syngonium angustatum
Region: Mexico, Central America, Colombia; naturalized in Bahamas, Netherlands Antilles, Bismarck Archipelago.
Name: from the Greek words syn, meaning together and gone, gonada, refers to the fused ovaries of female flowers.
Genus: 34 species.
Habitat: tropical rain forests; subtropical forests, ruderal areas, thickets, urban areas, wetlands.
Use: house plants.
Botany
Herb; elongated, climbing or creeping, woody vines, growing to of ± 15 m high.
Roots: adventitious roots, just below internodes.
Stem: cylindrical to oval in cross-section; green and photosynthetic shen young; climbing stalks have elongated internodes and are elastic to some extent; bending, breaks and peels off, turning brown or yellowish; border between the collenchyma and stem stem is poorly scratched; parenchyma, starch grains are randomly distributed; with idioblasts with calcium oxalate crystals and drusen; with secretory cells, containing tannins and milk juice, which solidifies in the air.
Leaves: more lobed when adult; sympodial growth, lacking branches; twisting with divergence 2/25; petioles always form a distinct, wide vagina, often ending slowly, pointed to rounded; petioles soft and brittle due toith many intercellular air chambers; petioles are rounded on the axial side and individually ribbed on the axial side; tails of juvenile leaves are often grooved; primitive pinnate pincers, converging to from 3 to 5 separate conductive beams
Inflorescences: flask; 1 to 11; at the top of the stem and from the side bud; flowers before the emergence of mature leaves; accompany short peduncles that are almost always raised and triangular or almost cylindrical in cross-section; bending to the ground due to ripening fruit.
Flowers: female flowers consists of two, rarely three, fused carpels; male flowers consist of 4, almost sitting heads of rods, joined to a greater or lesser extent in the synandrium, with a truncated apex and rhomboid, pentagonal or hexagonal edges, rarely serrated. Anthers are connected with a thick connector, they open by a short gap below the connector.
Fruits: ovoid; multigire compound; surrounded by a vaginal inflorescence chamber, which sometimes breaks and curls up, revealing fruit that is usually brownish and very aromatic (seeds shed by mammals) or white (in S. mauroanum, S. triphyllum and S. wendlandii, seeds spread by birds). Each fruit contains from 50 to 100 seeds, which are usually ovate or cylindrical, with dimensions 5-10 × 3-6 mm, with rounded ends. The seed husks are black or brown, thin, shiny. Seeds lose their ability to germinate after drying.
Perennial, evergreen climbers and hemieiphytes. Sometimes plants, e.g. after breaking the stem, become epiphytes. After germination of the seeds, which always takes place in the ground, the plant remains for some time at the stage of the rosette, with a slender stalk with very short internodes. Leaves, first ovate, after some time become cordate at the base. Then the stem rapidly grows to length, creeping in places with the highest shading. After reaching the trunk of the tree, the stem begins to climb rapidly towards the light, and the plant begins to form larger leaf blades. After reaching the appropriate height, the plants form mature leaf blades and bloom. After the growth cone is damaged, the usually unbranched plant begins to form lateral shoots. In the event of loss of contact with the support by the top part of the stem, the plant begins to produce narrower and longer internodes and smaller leaves. The flowers of the twins are protogous.
In the process of flowering plants use the mechanism of thermogenesis. Plants bloom for 3 days. Around noon on the first day of the cycle the scabbard inflorescence opens up to ½ to ⅔ of its length, allowing the insects to access the female flowers. The markings of the bars become moist and the temperature of the flask slightly rises above the ambient level. On the morning of the second day of the cycle, the temperature of the flask rapidly increases (to about 12 °C above the environment), and the flowers begin to give off a sharp aroma, attracting insects. This condition lasts for about 12 hours, after which the inflorescence temperature drops, but remains at about 2 °C above the external conditions. On the third day the temperature of the flask again increases slightly, and the sheath curls up on the stretch of staminodes and female flowers, which stop taking pollen at the same time. Then the male flowers open, letting out long threads of pollen, which falls into the chamber formed by the lower part of the vagina. At the same time, the temperature of the flask drops to the ambient level. Beetles are the primary insects that pollinate the flowers, especially those in the subfamilies Rutelinae and Dynastiniae. Syngonium podophyllum predominantly reproduces vegetatively, contributing to its invasiveness.
Toxicity
The twig tissues contain sharp crystals of calcium oxalate. Contact with the plant, especially its accidental damage, can cause inflammation of the skin, manifested by itching, burning, and the appearance of efflorescence and blisters. Getting the juice of the plant into the eye causes burning and tearing. Contact plants from the mucous membranes of the mouth causes them severe irritation, seen as a sharp, searing pain and swelling. Ingestion of the plant causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal mucosa.