page_title: Syngonium
section_title: Morphology and anatomy
hierarchical_section_title: Syngonium / Morphology and anatomy
caption_attribution_description: English: Unknown Araceae growing on a tree at the archeological site of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
context_page_description: Syngonium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to tropical rain forests in southern Mexico, the West Indies, Central and South America. They are woody vines growing to heights of 10–20 m or more in trees. They have leaves that change shape according to the plant's stage of growth, and 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 and γονή and refers to the fused ovaries of female flowers.
context_section_description: It is an elongated, climbing or creeping herbaceous evergreen plant that reaches a height of 10–20 m with a sympodial growth type, lacking branches (branches off only after damage to the apical meristem), cylindrical to oval in cross-section. After the inflorescences have risen from the top of the stem, it stops growing, and from the side bud, placed two nodes below the top of the stem, a new main shoot is formed.
  The stem reaches several millimeters in diameter in juvenile plants and up to 6 cm in diameter (average of 1–2 cm) in mature plants. In juvenile plants, the stem is green and performs photosynthesis, but with age the plant cells stem lose chlorophyll. The climbing stalks have elongated internodes and are elastic to some extent, however, after bending the stem's skin often breaks and peels off, turning brown or yellowish. The stem in section shows a distinct layer of the plant directly under the skin of the stem. The border between the collenchyma and stem stem is poorly scratched. In the parenchyma, starch grains are randomly distributed. The tissue of the stem also contains idioblasts with calcium oxalate crystals and drusen. The stem also contains secretory cells, containing tannins and milk juice, which solidifies in the air.
  Just below each node there are two types of adventitious roots: a bundle of sticky roots and a single root, whose function is to supply the plant with nutrients. Twisting foliage with divergence 2/25, sometimes disturbed by slight twisting of the stem. Leaf petioles always form a distinct, wide vagina, with a length reaching from the middle to almost the top of the tail. The top of the vagina often ends slowly, it is pointed to the rounded. The petiole of species belonging to the informal oblongatum section is widened and extends beyond the base of the plaque. There are many intercellular air chambers in the tissues of the petioles, which makes them soft and brittle. In cross-section, the petioles are rounded on the axial side and individually ribbed on the axial side. The tails of juvenile leaves are often grooved. The leaf blades of the twigs are diverse on juveniles, transient and mature, differing in the shape of the plaque. Plants often begin flowering before the emergence of mature leaves, which led to misleading description of new types of twigs.
  Primitive pinnate pincers, converging to from 3 to 5 separate conductive beams. The marginal line located furthest from the edge of the plaque is the largest, formed by the lowest side veins. Further, smaller marginal lines are formed by higher, smaller primary veins or secondary veins. Often, the fourth and fifth marginal bundles are not visible to the naked eye. The use of the distal order creates retinal nerve.
caption: Syngonium plant with fruits creeping over the tree at  Chiapas, Mexico
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