An Arrow Through My Heart

Happy Monday everyone! One of the few things that makes me look forward to Mondays is a blog post so excuse my unusual Monday excitement (Yeaaaah).  I have been hiding a little love from the spotlight and its high time I shared it with you. You could say I felt an arrow go straight through my heart when I saw this plant. Trying to paint a picture of one falling in love and not a literal arrow to the heart which would obviously mean pain and death. That would be a very unpleasant topic for a Monday morning. Anyway… For some reason, I thought this plant was delicate and too pretty to be an easy plant and was prepared to wait on it hand and foot. Was I in for a surprise! No waiting hand-and-foot needed here but rather it has been easy-peasy, smooth sailing caring for this baby.

Syngonium podophyllum also known as arrow head vine, goose foot plant, African evergreen, American evergreen and also incorrectly labelled as Nephthytis.  I love the beautiful variegated white and green leaves. It has such a lush look so I decided to photograph it against this soft luxurious rag.

This plant loves bright indirect light and although it can thrive in low light it probably will not look its best. Obviously variegated varieties will need more light than solid green colours in order to maintain its variegation. Direct sun will either bleach or burn its leaves.  Soil should be moist but not soggy. It may require daily misting during the dry winter months. Hmm, that might be hard.  I have not misted it all since I got it (over 3 months ago) and seems to be happy. However my hygrometer shows it is very dry where it is placed so I may need to mist it this winter. We’ll see. I’m so avert to misting leaves in fear of development of fungal or bacterial diseases. The arrow head vine flowers but they are insignificant (in my opinion) compared to the beauty and size of the leaves. Common pests are the usual suspects – mealy bugs and spider mites. I haven’t had either attack my plant.

When young, the plant takes a bushy form and looks very nice in planters and hanging baskets. However as they mature, they begin to climb and can be trained to climb a moss pole or trellis. I can’t wait for that to happen. I just love creeping, climbing or trailing plants. If you don’t want it to creep though, you can pinch off new growth to encourage busy growth.

They can be propagated by dividing the root. It can also be propagated by stem tip cuttings which will root easily in water or soil any time of the year. These plants are sometimes mistakenly referred to as philodendrons probably because of their appearance. However they are part of the Aroid family. An interesting thing about this plant is that when it is young, the leaves look like an arrow head. However, when it continues to develop, it changes shape such that it goes from 3 to 5 lobes or more. This appears to be a common feature of plants in the aroid family.

The Arrow head vine is considered a weed in certain areas, so you know if you give it the right conditions, it will grow – like a weed 🙂

Any of you keep an arrowhead vine? Any care tips welcome.