Monstera deliciosa Seeds | Swiss Cheese Plant
LATIN NAME: Monstera deliciosa
COMMON NAME: Swiss Cheese Plant
Plant Profile
The Swiss cheese plant is a hemiepiphyte, which is the botanically accurate way of saying that it starts life on the forest floor, finds a tree, climbs it, and then spends the rest of its life mostly in the air. The stems are thick as a thumb and carry long, aerial roots that grip bark and probe for soil; the leaves begin small and entire, and as the plant climbs they enlarge to nearly a metre across, developing the splits and holes that give it its name. In the wild it flowers at the top of its host tree, producing a cream spathe around a finger-like spadix, and the fruit that follows is a green, scaly spike that takes a year to ripen. It comes from the wet forests of southern Mexico and Central America, and it is now naturalised in the tropics almost everywhere it has been planted.
Science & Biotechnology
The holes and splits have attracted explanations for a century, and the honest answer is that no single one accounts for them. The leading hypotheses are that fenestration lets light through to lower leaves on the same plant, that it reduces the sail area of a large leaf in wind and rain, and that it allows the leaf to grow large with less investment in tissue. There is experimental support for the light-transmission idea and for the mechanical one, and they are not mutually exclusive. The plant is also a case study in heteroblasty — the dramatic change in leaf shape between juvenile and adult phases — and in the aerial-root system, which switches from anchorage to absorption depending on where it lands. The fruit contains oxalate raphides that cause intense irritation until the flesh is fully ripe, when the chemistry changes and the flavour becomes genuinely pleasant.
Uses & Benefits
As a houseplant it is close to unkillable, and that is both its virtue and its problem: it tolerates low light, dry air and long neglect, but it only produces its characteristic large, fenestrated leaves when it has something to climb and reasonable light. Give it a moss pole or a tree trunk and it will reward you within two years. The ripe fruit is edible and tastes of pineapple and banana, but it must be allowed to ripen fully, scale by scale, and the unripe flesh should never be eaten. In the tropics the plant is used as a quick cover for walls and unsightly trees, and the aerial roots are tough enough to be used as cordage. It is listed as invasive in parts of Florida, Hawaii and the Pacific, where it smothers native trees.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed, which must not be allowed to dry out, in a light, open mix of coir and perlite at 24 to 28 °C; germination takes two to four weeks and the seedlings are strong from the start. Grow them in bright, indirect light with high humidity, and give them a support as soon as the first aerial root appears. Pot on every spring into a mix that holds moisture but drains, and feed lightly through the growing season. The juvenile leaves will stay small and entire for a year or two — this is normal, not a failure. In a temperate climate the plant is a conservatory subject and will not flower; in the tropics it can be planted out once the stem is thick, in shade or part shade, with something to climb.
Our Take
The most forgiving large houseplant there is, and a genuinely strange plant once you know what it is doing in the forest.
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