SYNGONIUM NEGLECTUM
PROTOLOGUE: Syngonium neglectum , published in Bonplandia 7: 163 (1859). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Syngonium auritum var. neglectum (Schott) Engl.
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Syngonium morelosense Matuda; Syngonium occidentale G.S.Bunting
DISTRIBUTION: Mexico to Belize: Belize, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Belize: Cayo Mexico: Chiapas, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, México State, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine; juvenile plants with stems not glaucous; petioles sheathed 2/3–4/5 their length, 8–30 cm long; blades subsagittate to hastate, anterior lobe ovate, acuminate at apex, 9–14 cm long, 6–9 cm wide, posterior lobes very unequal, to 10 cm long and 4 cm wide; intermediate blades with the posterior lobes increasingly pinched off, 3-lobed with conspicuous, broad auricles. Adult plants with stems not glaucous, 1.5–2.5 cm diam., shiny, olive-green, becoming tan, short or elongated-creeping and firmly attached to trees; sap pale tan, copious; internodes 1.5–10.0 cm long on flowering parts, longer below, green when fresh, drying pale brown with many longitudinal folds. Leaves with petioles 17–55 cm long, semiglossy, sometimes glaucous, slightly paler than stem, sheathed 1/2–4/5 their length, sheath free ending at apex (free ending portion sometimes to 2.5 cm long), the portion between sheath and blade subterete, obtusely angled adaxially; blades firm, semiglossy, weakly coriaceous, sometimes semi-glaucous on the upper surface, usually pedatisect with 3–7 leaflets, occasionally 9, rarely 11; leaflets usually free or sometimes (especially outer leaflets) confluent; median leaflet ovate to elliptic, rarely suborbicular, 14–38 cm long, 5–25 cm wide, acuminate at apex with a small apiculum, obtuse to rounded and attenuate at base, somewhat inequilateral; outermost leaflets often with slender, almost oblong auricles (these eventually pinching off and becoming widely separated as distinct leaflets); primary lateral veins 5–13 per side, sunken above, prominently raised beneath; tertiary veins clearly visible on lower surface.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences 1–3, usually 1; peduncle 7–15 cm long and erect at anthesis, 12–18 cm long and pendent in fruit; spathe tube suborbicular to ellipsoid, 4.5–6.5(8.0) cm long, 4–6 cm diam., green outside, dark dull waxy red or sometimes violet-purple inside; spathe blade orbicular to elliptic, acuminate at apex, green becoming yellowish cream within (sometimes reddish at base), sometimes creamy white on both sides, reflexed from spadix at maturity, 9–15 cm long, 7–14 cm wide (when flattened); spadix sometimes curved sharply outward somewhat above the pistillate portion; pistillate portion of spadix 1.4–3.9 cm long, 1.5–2.9 cm diam., yellowish green, the flowers 2(or 3)-carpellate, the stigma bilobed; staminate portion of spadix white, curved forward, 8–16 cm long, 1.5–3 cm diam., flowers usually 4-androus (rarely more), synandrium usually flat at apex, usually irregularly 6-sided, ca. 5 mm long, 3 mm wide, margins weakly sinuate. Infructescences orange to red, 6–9 cm long, 5–7 cm diam.; syncarp 5–7 cm long, 3–5 cm diam.; mesocarp fleshy, white; seeds grayish black to dark black, 6–10 mm long, 5–7 mm wide (Birdsey reports them as 10–13 mm long by 6–9 mm wide). Syngonium neglectum apparently flowers during the first half of the rainy season (June to September) and also at the beginning of the dry season.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Syngonium neglectum is known only from Mexico but is widespread in that country, ranging from Tamaulipas to Chiapas on the Atlantic slope and from Nayarit to Chiapas on the Pacific slope. The range of life zones is uncertain, but the species is obviously quite variable ecologically and has been collected in both relatively dry and relatively wet areas. The species is most common at higher elevations in relatively dry situations. It occurs from near sea level (in the north of its range) or from near 350 m (in the south of its range) to 1700 m elevation.⁴ altitude: 0–1700 m
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin neglectus, "overlooked" or "neglected." Schott, who described the species in 1859 from Liebmann's Mexican material, does not explain the choice, but the name follows the botanical convention for a plant that had previously been passed over or confused with another species.²
NOTES:
1. The species is a member of section Syngonium and is characterized by having non-glaucous stems, moderately long internodes, petioles sheathed 1/2–4/5 their length with the sheath free ending at apex, usually pedatisect blades with 3–7(11) leaflets, the outermost leaflets often with slender, almost oblong auricles, 5–13 primary lateral veins per side, with 1–3 moderately long-pedunculate inflorescences, the spathe tube suborbicular to ellipsoid, green outside, reddish to purplish inside as well as the orange to red spathe tube. The species was considered a variety of Syngonium auritum (a strictly West Indian species) by Engler & Krause (1920). Syngonium auritum is distinguished by a spathe blade twice as long as the staminate portion of the spadix, whereas in Syngonium neglectum the spathe blade and staminate portion of the spadix are of nearly equal length. Other characters which help to distinguish Syngonium neglectum are the usually solitary inflorescences, and especially the size of the spathe and the staminate portion of the spadix, both of which are larger than for any other species. Syngonium neglectum can be confused vegetatively with Syngonium podophyllum where they occur together, although the latter species does not occur on the Pacific slope in Mexico and usually occurs at lower elevations, whereas Syngonium neglectum frequently ranges above 1000 m. Syngonium neglectum also lacks the glaucous stems usually present on Mexican plants of Syngonium podophyllum.⁴
2. Sources differ on whether the species reaches Belize. Plants of the World Online includes Belize (Cayo) in its range.¹ Croat’s 2023 revision describes Syngonium neglectum as known only from Mexico, although two of its photographs of the species, a juvenile leaf (fig. 145, Holst 9805) and a fruiting plant (fig. 151, Holst 9804), are of plants from Belize.⁴ Díaz Jiménez and colleagues (2026) list Syngonium neglectum among the four Syngonium taxa endemic to Mexico and state that those two photographs show Syngonium macrophyllum instead; they cite no specimen for that identification.⁵
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Syngonium neglectum
2. Bonplandia 7: 163 (1859) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Syngonium neglectum
Additional photo by David Scherberich