
| from the December 27, 2009 Newsletter issued from
Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO NEPHTHYTIS, THE ARROWHEAD VINE Above you see a tree-climbing aroid occurring here and there in deep shade at Hacienda Chichen. Aroids are members of the Arum Family, the Araceae, the same family as the North's Jack-in-the-pulpit springtime wildflower. In English often it's called Nephthytis or Arrowhead Vine. It's SYNGONIUM PODOPHYLLUM, and it's a native to Central America. I don't know if it's distributed this far north in the wild; it's a garden plant here. You can see a close-up of one of its deeply lobed leaves below:
If you're familiar with aroids you know that they produce many tiny flowers on a fingerlike stem (the "spadix", which is Jack in Jack-in-the-pulpit) with a hoodlike modified leaf, or "spathe," usually wrapped around or overtopping the spadix (the pulpit in Jack- in-the-pulpit). Our Nephthytises are flowering now and you can see a cluster of inflorescences below:
The topmost inflorescence has lost its spathe, revealing the upper part of the spadix and exposing the tops of many male flowers. The female flowers are below the collar-like scar at the base of the male flowers, inside the green, bulging area. The bulging area surrounding the female flowers looks closed, but when the female flowers are receptive an opening develops just large enough for pollinators to enter, then the opening closes. To the right of the topmost inflorescence is a younger inflorescence still with its spathe attached. Below these you can make out several developing "fruits," all topped with brown, dry scars where both the spathe and that part of the spadix holding the male flowers have fallen off. At the bottom left a "fruit" is turning red. "Fruit" is in quotation marks because, technically, the real fruits are the matured ovaries of the individual female flowers inside the bulging fruitlike things. Turning red like that, it's obviously inviting seed-dispersing fruit-eaters to a snack. You can see how the stem sprouts aerial roots that attach it to tree bark as it grows at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/09/091227sj.jpg.
Sometimes Nephthytis can't find anything to climb so its stems range across the ground forming a dense groundcover. Leaves on these horizontal stems are smaller and typically have only three lobes or no lobes at all. You can see some three-lobed ones, suggesting where the name Arrowhead Vine comes from, below.
If he above three-lobed leaves look familiar it may be because un North Nephthytis often is grown in pots where it seldom has enough room to develop the more robust, several-lobed blades. Nephthytis must be fairly adaptive, for it's escaped into the wild in central and southern Florida. Its juice is milky and can cause mild to severe poisoning if ingested. |
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