Re: Why is Monstera deliciosa to be kept in the adult form in pot culture?

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Dear John, I don't know if the fact that M. deliciosa is a higher altitude species has anything to do to the phenomenon described in the title, but it explains why I saw a lush wall of this plant flowering and fruiting in a park in Lisbon, Porugal, which is not a tropical.

country.
Dear Mr Moonen,

What you wrote supports that M. deliciosa does not need to climb and grown as an epiphite to keep its adult form and flower. It doesn't even have to be in a humid environment, as all the plants in flats and offices keep their adult form with large, wonderful leaves and sometimes they flower in such conditions. When I cut my M. deliciosa into one leaved cuttings, they grow a new shoot from the node developing to a new plant with the adult leaf form. On the other hand, someone wrote somewhere (maybe on this forum?) that he got a cutting of a M. dubia (or tenuis? I remember) from an adult plant but it reverted to the juvenile form. The other Monstera species that is sometimes available here in Europe (maybe M. adansonii, or a hybrid, I don't know, but it is from Holland) is always in its juvenile form. I sometimes see M. dubia plants offered on the internet, and they are always in the juvenile form. So it seems that M. deliciosa somewhat differs from other Monstera species and other climbing aroids in the way it regulates the switch between juvenile and adult forms. Or am I wrong?

Ferenc

 

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