SYNGONIUM PODOPHYLLUM 'GLO-GO'

ORIGIN:

Oglesby Plants International, Inc., Altha, Florida (Marian W. Osiecki); US Plant Patent PP12,282, 2001

CULTIVAR DESCRIPTION:

A compact, dense, rounded, symmetrical and non-vining plant whose leaves carry a striking, well-defined greenish white pattern on a dark green background, the proportion of white decreasing as plants mature. It is fuller and more symmetrical than its parent 'Robusta', which vines.¹

NOTES:

1. The product of a mutation-induction program. Unrooted cuttings of 'Robusta' were exposed to gamma rays from a cobalt-60 source at the Florida Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Industry in Gainesville in the fall of 1993, and a single plant was selected in September 1994 at Altha, Florida, by Marian W. Osiecki of Oglesby Plants International; US Plant Patent PP12,282 was granted on 18 December 2001.¹

2. Listed among Florida's commercial cultivars in 2004 as compact with limited vining, the dark green leaves with striking light cream veins.²

3. Unconfirmed: Hatch rates it a favorite of two decades for the stability of its broad off-white veins from young to old leaves, the white covering 50 to 60 percent of the blade.³ Thirty years on it remains one of the most reliable white-veined arrowheads, prized precisely because its pattern does not drift as the leaves age.³

STORY:

STORY TITLE: Bred with gamma rays

Most Syngonium cultivars were found, not made: a grower noticed one odd plant in a bench of tissue-cultured liners and kept it. 'Glo-Go' is the exception. In the fall of 1993 Marian Osiecki of Oglesby Plants International sent unrooted cuttings of the vining cultivar 'Robusta' to the Florida Division of Plant Industry in Gainesville, where they were exposed to gamma radiation from a cobalt-60 source. The irradiated cuttings were rooted at Altha in the Florida panhandle and grown through several cycles of selection, and in September 1994 a single plant was picked out for its compact, non-vining habit, its vigor and the clean greenish white pattern on its dark leaves. Tissue culture proved the traits stable, and the plant was patented in December 2001.¹

REFERENCES:

1. Osiecki, M.W. 2001. Syngonium plant named 'Glo-Go'. US Plant Patent PP12,282

2. Chen, J., McConnell, D.B. & Everitt, K.C. 2005. Cultural guidelines for commercial production of interiorscape Syngonium. University of Florida IFAS Extension ENH 993 / EP244

3. Hatch, L.C. 2024. Houseplant Cultivars, Volume I, 2nd edition, Syngonium section (after the Report of the Syngonium Working Group, 2nd edition, 2023). Cultivar.org, Cary, North Carolina

Plates from US Plant Patent PP12,282