Monstera deliciosa

Swiss cheese plant · Ceriman

Family: Araceae
Native to: Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas) to Guatemala
Habit: Hemiepiphytic climber
Also known as: Monstera borsigiana, Philodendron pertusum

My plant

A shallow ceramic bowl of glossy black squid ink noodles topped with sliced spring onion, on a wooden table beside a glass of beer.

A narrow alley of tiny bars at night, walls crowded with hand-painted signs, stickers and air conditioning units, a paper lantern glowing overhead and two figures silhouetted at the far end.

Seared bonito sashimi fanned over crushed ice in a pale wooden bowl, scattered with sesame seeds and sliced spring onion, a nest of shredded leek behind it.

Where it comes from

Kew’s Plants of the World Online gives the native range as Mexico — Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas — through to Guatemala. That is narrower than the “southern Mexico to Panama” you will see repeated across the houseplant web, which appears to conflate M. deliciosa with other species in the genus.

In the wild it germinates on the forest floor and grows towards darkness until it finds a trunk — a behaviour called skototropism — then climbs, putting out progressively larger and more fenestrated leaves as it gains height and light. The plant on a windowsill is a juvenile version of something that is supposed to be twenty metres up a tree.

Naming and description

Described by the Danish botanist Frederik Michael Liebmann in 1849, in Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening. The epithet is not decorative: deliciosa refers to the fruit.

It has collected a long list of synonyms along the way, including Philodendron pertusum — which is why very old references sometimes file it under the wrong genus entirely. Monstera borsigiana, still sold as a separate plant, is treated by Kew as a synonym rather than a distinct species.

Fun facts

The fruit is genuinely edible, and genuinely dangerous unripe. It ripens over the better part of a year, scale by scale from the base. Ripe, it tastes somewhere between pineapple and banana. Unripe, it is loaded with calcium oxalate crystals that sting the mouth and throat.
Nobody is certain why it fenestrates. The leading hypotheses are that the holes let wind through without tearing the leaf, let light down to the plant’s own lower leaves, or let a given amount of leaf tissue cover a wider area — an advantage when light arrives in unpredictable flecks through a canopy.
The holes are not torn. They are formed by programmed cell death in the developing leaf, before it unfurls.

Care

Inherited from Monstera, except for 2 things marked below.

Lightdiffers from Monstera: Will tolerate less light than most of the genus, but pays for it in leaf size. Fenestration on a mature plant is a light problem long before it is an age problem.
Monstera generally: Bright indirect. An east window, or a few feet back from a south or west one. Direct midday sun scorches the leaves; deep shade produces long internodes, small leaves and no fenestration.
Water: Water thoroughly once the top 2-5 cm of mix has dried, then let it drain completely. They tolerate a short dry spell far better than they tolerate sitting wet.
Humidity: Comfortable above 50%, better above 60%. Below about 40% the leaf edges crisp and new leaves tend to open with fewer fenestrations.
Temperature: 18-29 °C. Growth stalls below about 15 °C. Keep them off cold glass and out of winter draughts.
Substrate: Chunky and free-draining — roughly equal parts orchid bark, perlite and coir. Straight potting compost holds too much water against the roots.
Fertilizer: A balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering through spring and summer. Little or none through winter.
Propagationdiffers from Monstera: Unusually easy even by Monstera standards. A single node with an aerial root will take in plain water, though it transitions to soil better if rooted in sphagnum.
Monstera generally: Stem cuttings with at least one node, ideally with an aerial root attached. Roots readily in water, sphagnum or straight into a chunky mix.
Dormancy: No true dormancy, but growth slows markedly in low light and cool temperatures. Cut back watering to match.
Common problems: Yellowing lower leaves are almost always too much water rather than too little
Crisp brown edges point at low humidity, or salts accumulated from feeding
New leaves opening without fenestration usually means not enough light
Spider mites and thrips establish quickly in dry air — check the undersides

These are the Monstera defaults. The rules that hold across everything — what bright indirect actually measures, when to water, what humidity does and does not do — are on the general plant care page.

These photographs also live in the gallery.