I have no idea what this is but I saw it on a tree with fruit and thought I'd take a picture.

It is the leaves in the foreground, not the pothos in the back.




Here is the fruit.

Beautiful Jonna. Is it close enough to keep an eye on? In the 2nd photo is that an inflorescence dangling down on top of the Pothos leaf?

The dried out bit? I don't know, but I'll go and have another look. It's at one of my favorite nurseries and I'm out there once a week usually. The owner is a bit eccentric and has been there forever so he's got all sorts of large, old specimens and lots of trees for them to grow on. He recently put in a bunch of ponds and seems to be really interested in water gardening. Still, he has the best selections of native orchids and heliconia around. I was out there this week with a friend who has a lot more room than I do so I'm having fun getting her to plant stuff I don't have room for.

Hello Jonna,
That is a mature Syngonium podophyllum though I can not tell you which variety. What LariAnn has told me about these plants is as they mature a large percentage of them lose their interesting characteristics in favor of green leaves. I could be wrong abut the ID, but I do see this plant growing all over Tumaco. There are no pollinators here, so I do not see the fruits. I am going to be trying some crosses with my new Syngonium next year when the flowering season comes back around though, so we will see.

Here is a photo of the fruit of Syngonium podophyllum.
http://keyserver.lucidcentral....

Ohhh...I see now. The Infructescence is wrapped by the lower portion of the red spathe. uforest shows a pic of the inflorescence as well. Edible? Jonna, love to see some pics in the DB as we don't have any mature plants represented. Syngonium podophyllum

Evan,
I will upload some in the next week of several varieties as we have a huge infestation of this plant all over Tumaco. Like I said though, there are no natural pollinators here on the island , so we do not see many fruit.

I am trying very hard to keep the plant I found of a new Syngonium with fruit alive for future hybridization with S. podophyllum. I would like to get variegation & a bit more strength in growth out of the cross. The new plant Dr. Croat is calling Syngonium litense Croat is a nice looking plant, but is a bit finicky.

Noel Calvert

I'm amazed that this is a mature arrowhead plant, those are really common too but they look SO different from this. Pretty wonderful transformation. I'll get some better pics and put these up if you'd like. I wonder if I should ask for one of the ripe fruits? I could try growing them although I'm not really very good with seeds. Nah, I'll just take some more pics.

Take photos over the next few weeks as the fruit matures, & when it is mature, ask for the fruit (not just the seeds). You will have to remove the seeds from the fruit & soak them in clean water over night (24 hours) before planting them, or they will not grow. The plant is very common, but also very commonly reverts to the juvenile state. That is why you are not familiar with the mature state I would guess.

Seeing them right next to each other I would not have guessed they were even in the same family. I'm so happy to learn these things, I love this place.

Something I noticed in the 1st photo is the small leaves toward the bottom which look like the mature leaves in miniature. Are these the same plant Jonna?

Yes, those small split leaves are the same plant. Perhaps they grow larger? I've no idea but they are off the same vine.

It is worth the effort to grow the seeds because there is always a chance of getting a dwarf plant. I got several dwarf Syngoniums from seeds many years ago - I wish I still had them! Mature leaves were just about an inch long on thin stems. It would have been so cute with diminutive palmately-compound leaves.

So, would they have the colored leaves of the juvenile plant but small? Also, Lari Ann, in the 2nd picture above the small but green 3 fingered leaves are they going to get larger? or, now that the plant is an adult will all of the leaves be this style?

So a small plant sends out juvenile leaves but once the stem? gets large enough it sends out mature palmately-compound leaves. AND small stems off the main stem also send out palmately-compound leaves? Does anyone else find this incredible? Has a mechanism been discovered? If one of those small stems were to "fall" into Jonna's pocket and be rooted would the new leaves put forth be juvenile?

good question my pockets are always open! Actually, I think he'd give me a cutting if I asked. I am more than a little confused by the change from juvenile to adult in many of these plants. Even the common pothos, mine never seem to change to adult and the locals tell me that they have to climb and reach the top of something. Except, I see large leaf pothos all over town that are right on the ground, I don't get it.

Adult Syngoniums will have the palmately divided leaves so long as they are attached and climbing. I've noticed that even on mature Pothos, sometimes runners with juvenile leaves are produced. Some people take a tip from a mature specimen (Pothos or Syngonium) and root it upright as though it were still climbing, and it may continue to produce mature leaves even though it is not high up in a tree.

Just some observations,
LariAnn

I will try that LariAnn, and let you know what happens. It is everywhere here and getting a cutting of a large leaf is easy. I've done it before but I had them just in a vase of water for several months and never planted them out. This time I'll put it in the ground and in the sun on my back wall and see if it will keep making large leaves.

Thanks for the explanation LariAnn and good luck with your cutting Jonna. This DB photo of Lin's shows a plant in transition?

That plant in my photo started as a little house plant in a small hanging basket with a few vines hanging over the sides. Some of the vines ended up reaching the ground and taking root; it then began climbing our screen room and leaving holes in the screen when I'd pull it off! My husband ended up having to replace all of the screen around our screened pool area so the Syngonium was finally eradicated.

Syngonium podophyllum is very invasive (even here in central Florida where we occasionally have winter freezes!) I volunteer at a little botanical garden here in the area and that stuff is taking over, as is Epipremnum aureum (Pothos).

If you take a cutting of the mature tip of the plant, root it upright as LariAnn suggested, & grow it in direct sunlight to keep mature leaves coming. This is the observation I have from seeing the wild Syngonium podophylum here in Tumaco. Place it on the sunny side of the tree your going to let it climb, but honestly I would just watch the ones around you as inviting it into your yard in a climate where it is invasive may be a bad idea!

I would try the seeds though to try for a dwarf plant. That would be awesome to see mature.