SYNGONIUM ODUBERI
PROTOLOGUE: Syngonium oduberi , published in Aroideana 3: 128 (1980).
Syngonium oduberi T. Ray, sp. nov. A speciebus cum petiolo 6–10 cm longo, vagina ubi complanata usque ad 1 cm lata plerumque aliquantum infra lamina terminata apice acute, lamina 14–23 cm longa, pedunculo fructifero circa 4 cm longo, et tubo spathae circa 4 cm longo, differt. Type: Costa Rica: Osa Peninsula, Corcovado National Park, Ray 4 (holotype GH, sheet 1; isotype GH, sheet 2).
DISTRIBUTION: Costa Rica (Osa Pen.): Costa Rica, Puntarenas.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Costa Rica: Puntarenas.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine; juvenile plants with trailing stems; internodes 4–7 mm long, 3 mm wide; leaves much like those of adults but smaller and narrower; petioles 4.5–5.5 cm long; blades 13–15 cm long, 3.5–4.5 cm wide. Adult plants with stems closely appressed to trees; internodes 1–2 cm long, ca. 6 mm wide. Leaves with petioles 6–10 cm long, sheathed throughout except for apical 0.5–1.0 cm, sheath free-ending and apiculate at apex, not extending beyond base of blade, apical part flattened adaxially with a medial rib, margins acute; blades simple, oblong-elliptic, gradually acuminate at apex (acumen 1.0–1.5 cm long), slightly constricted above posterior lobes (less so on juvenile blades), 14–23 cm long, (4)6–9 cm wide, drying olive-green to yellow-brown, semiglossy above, gray-green and weakly glossy below; posterior lobes rounded to bluntly acute, 0.8–1.3(2.5) cm long; sinus arcuate to parabolic, (0.5)1.0–2.1 cm deep, 0.5–1.8 cm wide (sometimes completely closed); primary lateral veins (9)12–14 on each side, sunken above, raised beneath, drying narrowly and weakly raised on both surfaces sometime undulate; tertiary veins prominent, scarcely apparent on drying; latex not milky though slightly orange in mature stems.³
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences pendent; peduncle 3.5 cm long; flowering spadix not seen. Infructescences with spathe green outside, burgundy inside; syncarp 4 cm long, 2.5 cm diam.; berries cream. Flowering July; fruiting October– December.³
ECOLOGY:
Syngonium oduberi is endemic to Costa Rica, known only from the Osa Peninsula in Corcovado National Park at 50–900 m elevation in a Tropical wet forest life zone.³ altitude: 50–900 m
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of former Costa Rican president Daniel Oduber Quirós, whose conservation pursuits include the establishment of Corcovado National Park, the only locality from which the species was known when Tom Ray described it in 1980.²
NOTES:
1. The species is a member of sect. Cordata and is characterized by moderately elongate, narrow internodes, non-milky sap that eventually turns orangish, petioles sheathed nearly throughout, the sheath free-ending and apiculate at apex, free part flattened with a medial rib, simple, oblong-elliptic, gradually acuminate blades which are slightly constricted above posterior lobes, rounded to bluntly acute posterior lobes, an arcuate to parabolic sinus and infructescences with the spathe burgundy inside with berries cream. The species is close to both Syngonium llanoense and Syngonium castroi but differing from both by having a much narrower petiole that is also much shorter, only 6–10 cm long and with the sheath ending well below the apex. The other two species have much longer petioles with a sheath 2–3 cm wide and usually extending the full length of the petiole. Syngonium oduberi can also be confused with Syngonium rayi a more widespread species known mostly from the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica in Guanacaste, Heredia, Alejuela and Limón and ranging south to Panama. That species differs by having decidedly hastate spreading posterior lobes.³
2. Placed by Croat in section Oblongata in 1981; that section was merged into section Cordata in 2023 once new species had blurred the line between oblong and cordate blades.³
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Syngonium oduberi
2. Aroideana 3: 128 (1980) — protologue.
Additional photos from iNaturalist by LostInCR and Leonardo Álvarez-Alcázar