Species
+

Syngonium podophyllum Schott

African evergreen, African evergreen, American Evergreen, American evergreen

Climate known 48 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Syngonium podophyllum is a species of aroid that is a popular houseplant. Common names include: arrowhead plant, arrowhead vine, arrowhead philodendron, goosefoot, nephthytis, African evergreen, and American evergreen. The species is native to a wide region of Latin America from Mexico through Bolivia, and naturalized in the West Indies, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, and other places.

Text from Wikipedia, “Syngonium podophyllum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Syngonium

Syngonium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to tropical rainforests in southern Mexico, the West Indies, and Central and South America. They are vines growing to heights of 10–20 m or more in trees. Their leaves change shape according to the plant's stage of growth; adult leaf forms are often much more lobed than the juvenile forms usually seen on small house plants. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Syngonium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
Schott
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +23
Wild records
851 in range· 667 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2046mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 246 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Syngonium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2046 mm a year, wettest September at 246 mm, driest February at 102 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Pothos auritus Willd. ex Schult.; Syngonium podophyllum subsp. podophyllum; Syngonium podophyllum subsp. typicum Engl.; Syngonium podophyllum var. typicum Engl.; Syngonium vellozoanum Schott and 5 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Syngonium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1473 mm of 2046 mm) falls in June to December. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2046 mm a year, wettest September at 246 mm, driest February at 102 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2046 mm a year at the habitat, 1473 mm of it June to December. Wettest month September at 246 mm, driest February at 102 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1298 mm to 3599 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 15.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 15.9 °C, the absolute minimum 12.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.7 °C to 23.2 °C), warmest day 28.5 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 22 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2046 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 730 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–35RH 64–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 730 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 22–3027 / 23–3028 / 25–3129 / 25–3228 / 24–3228 / 23–3127 / 22–3028 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3127 / 23–3027 / 22–29
Night °C20 / 14–2320 / 14–2421 / 15–2421 / 17–2422 / 16–2421 / 15–2521 / 14–2421 / 15–2421 / 15–2421 / 16–2421 / 16–2320 / 14–23
Rain mm118 / 25–325102 / 19–297103 / 19–300108 / 35–341142 / 66–391242 / 52–420226 / 46–422222 / 39–447246 / 70–466201 / 86–402173 / 48–348163 / 31–325
DLI30 / 23–3631 / 27–3835 / 29–3935 / 27–4231 / 23–4129 / 22–3831 / 23–3933 / 27–3832 / 28–3630 / 26–3629 / 24–3528 / 22–35
RH %66 / 60–7165 / 59–7064 / 58–7065 / 58–7166 / 60–7267 / 63–7367 / 61–7266 / 60–7267 / 61–7267 / 62–7267 / 61–7267 / 61–71

Each figure is the median across the 730 grid cells holding the 835 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2137:2811 (-16.875, -39.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 730 distinct grid cells holding the 835 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2137:2811 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -17.00_-39.375, lapse-corrected +24 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 105 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North· introduced: Comoros, Seychelles, Bangladesh, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Hawaii, Florida, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Brazil South
Kew's description“liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.346, -96.777 · in the densest population, 197 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 851 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 667 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 907 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 851 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Syngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllumSyngonium podophyllum

Photographs: (c) Skjold Søndergaard, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Pablo Cauã da Silva Toledo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) sh_rodes, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Syngonium podophyllum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Medicinal and ethnoveterinary remedies of hunters in Trinidad
Cheryl Lans, Tisha A.M. Harper, Karla Georges, Elmo Bridgewater (2001) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Efficacy of Indoor Plants for the Removal of Single and Mixed Volatile Organic Pollutants and Physiological Effects of the Volatiles on the Plants
Mung Hwa Yoo, Youn Jung Kwon, Ki-Cheol Son, Stanley J. Kays (2006) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Pathway analysis: aquatic plants imported in 10 EPPO countries
Sophie Brunel‐Muguet (2009) · EPPO Bulletin
Metal–Organic Framework–Plant Nanobiohybrids as Living Sensors for On-Site Environmental Pollutant Detection
Jieying Liang, Muhammad Yazid Bin Zulkifli, Samantha Low‐Choy, Yong Li (2020) · Environmental Science & Technology
Vesicular-arbuscular Mycorrhizal Peat-based Substrates Enhance Symbiosis Establishment and Growth of Three Micropropagated Species
Hsuan-Sheng Wang, S. Parent, Α. Gosselin, Yves Desjardins (1993) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Olive-mill Waste Compost as a Growth Medium Component for Foliage Potted Plants
Μ. Papafotiou, George Kargas, Ioanna Lytra (2005) · HortScience
AFLP analysis of nephthytis (Syngonium podophyllum Schott) selected from somaclonal variants
Jianjun Chen, Richard J. Henny, P. S. Devanand, Chih-Cheng T. Chao (2005) · Plant Cell Reports
An Assessment of the Suitability of Active Green Walls for NO2 Reduction in Green Buildings Using a Closed-Loop Flow Reactor
Thomas Pettit, Peter J. Irga, Nicholas C. Surawski, Fraser R. Torpy (2019) · Atmosphere
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Syngonium podophyllum leaf extract and its antibacterial activity
Romana Naaz, Vasi Uddin Siddiqui, Sami Ullah Qadir, Weqar Ahmad Siddiqi (2021) · Materials Today Proceedings
Phytoremediation of nitrate contaminated water using ornamental plants
S. Shyamala, N. Arul Manikandan, Kannan Pakshirajan, Van Tai Tang (2019) · AQUA - Water Infrastructure Ecosystems and Society

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Syngonium 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 142 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.