MONSTERA DISSECTA
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera dissecta (Schott) Croat & Grayum, published in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74: 659 (1987).
Monstera dissecta [(Schott) N.E.Br. ex Donn.Sm., Enum. Pl. Guatem. 5: 88. 1899, comb. inval.]; (Schott) Croat & Grayum, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 74(3): 659. 1987. ≡ Tornelia dissecta Schott (‘Fornelia dissecta’), Oesterr. Bot. Z. 8: 179. 1858. Type: Costa Rica. [Cartago:] Vulcan de Turialba [sic], 24 March 1857 (‘1856’), H.A. Wendland 500 (holotype GOET!; ?isotypes W, destroyed [fragm.], K fide Engler & Krause (1908: 111, n.v.)).⁴
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Tornelia dissecta Schott
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Monstera longipedunculata Matuda; Monstera peruviana Engl.
DISTRIBUTION: C. America: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Costa Rica: Guanacaste iNaturalist: Alajuela, Atlántida, Bocas del Toro, Limón.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Robust herb, terrestrial or nomadic vine, appressed-climbing or pendent habit. Seedlings: bearing foliose leaves. Juvenile plants: root climbers; stems light brown to beige, smooth, cylindrical; internodes 3–4 cm long, 5–10 mm diam.; petiole distinct, light green, smooth, 7–10 cm long, sheathed to base of the geniculum or blade; petiole sheath persistent; blades ovate to lanceolate, attenuate to subcordate at base, acuminate, subcoriaceous, 15–23 × 14–20 cm, not appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent or present, only on one margin of the blade; margins entire or lobed (due to tearing of the perforations that extend to the margin). Adult plants: root climbers; stems beige to light brown, smooth, cylindrical; internodes 1–3 cm long, 0.8–3.0 cm diam., 1.0–1.2 times longer than wide; cataphylls light-green, deciduous; anchor roots light brown; feeder roots corky, dark brown; petiole light green, smooth, 15–55 cm long, fully sheathed or up to 5 cm before of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent, horizontally open or revolute, fused at apex; geniculum smooth, sunken adaxially, convex abaxially, 1–3 cm long; blades ovate to elliptic or oblong, cuneate to rounded or truncate at base, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, obtuse to short-acuminate at apex, drying bright reddish, brownish or greenish, 23–58 × 14–35 cm, (1.3)1.7–1.9(2.0) times longer than wide, decurrent on the geniculum, decurrent portion 3–5 mm wide; midrib ribbed adaxially, convex abaxially, drying brownish on both surfaces; primary lateral veins 4–20 per side, sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially, departing midrib at 50–65°, drying brownish or reddish; secondary veins parallel and prominent, reticulate towards margins; collective veins visible towards lobes; fenestrations absent or present; margins entire, pinnatilobed or scarcely pinnatifid, 2–6 lobed per side.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on ascending and pendent stems, 1–5 simultaneously at flowering time, arranged in the leaf axils or into cataphylls; peduncle smooth, 12–24 cm long; spathe acuminate, light green during development, yellowish externally and cream internally at anthesis, with revolute margins and completely open at apex, deciduous after anthesis, scarcely marcescent, 16–24 × 12–15 cm, up to 10 cm longer than spadix; spadix creamy-yellowish (both during development and at anthesis), 6–15 cm long, 1.5–3.6 cm diam., 2.0–5.7 times longer than wide; basal sterile flowers 5–7 mm long, with an orange stigmatic secretion; fertile flowers 4–7 mm long; stamens 1.0–6.5 mm long, with laminar filaments; anthers 1.3–2.7 mm long; ovary rectangular in longitudinal section, ribbed, 3–4 × 2–3 mm; style hexagonal, 2–3 × 4–5 mm; stigmatophore cupuliform, 0.4–1.0 mm long; stigma circular, with a yellowish stigmatic secretion; berries with a light-green stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap creamy-yellowish; pulp white; seeds black with brown dots, 4–7 mm long.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Monstera dissecta ranges from Belize to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama from sea level to mostly less than 700 (1150) m, in Tropical wet forest, Premontane wet and Lower montane rain forest life zones. Flowering September to November. Fruiting occurs mostly February, June, July, and September to November.⁴
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin dissectus, "deeply cut," referring to the pinnatifid leaf blades.
NOTES:
1. The species is a member of sect. Monstera. It differs from the other species in its persistent and revolute petiolar sheath, its hardly perforated but often pinnatilobed leaf blade, with a decurrent base, its externally yellowish spathe, and the stigma slightly raised by a cupuliform stigmatophore, with yellowish secretion. It is similar to Monstera limitaris and Monstera monteverdensis but differs from the latter which has a deciduous petiolar sheath, and pinnatilobed, never-fenestrate leaves, and a light green and externally pruinose spathe. It differs from Monstera limitaris which has petioles with brown-dark warts on the base, leaves with pinnatilobed margins, and undulating base decurrent on the geniculum and fenestrations on each side next to the midrib, and the stigma raised by a columnar stigmatophore and with transparent secretion. Monstera dissecta is highly variable in vegetative morphology and growth form; adult and reproductive plants can have entire and pinnatilobed leaf blades in ascending stems or have completely entire leaves in ascending and hanging stems. Monstera dissecta material collected in Costa Rica had been determined by Madison (1977) as “Monstera dilacerata (K.Koch & Sello) K.Koch”, apparently based on misinterpretation of photos of the lost type, which had been made from a sterile cultivated plant of uncertain geographical origin (Croat & Grayum, 1987; Grayum, 1997). Grayum (1997) and then Boyce (1998) concluded that the name Monstera dilacerata is in fact a synonym of Epipremnum pinnatum (Linnaeus (1763: 1374)) Engler in Engler & Krause (1908: 60), an Asian species (see Grayum & Cedeño-Fonseca 2018 for its neotypification). Grayum (1997) further determined that all Costa Rican material previously identified as Monstera dilacerata represented not only Monstera dissecta, but also Monstera glaucescens, Monstera lentii and Monstera pinnatipartita. For more details about the taxonomic comments and nomenclatural notes see Cedeño-Fonseca et al. (2022).⁴
2. Conservation status: Monstera dissecta is protected in the Estación Biológica La Selva, Reserva Biológica La Tirimbina, Reserva Indígena Tayni, Parque Nacional Tortuguero, Parque Nacional Cahuita, Refugio Mixto de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo and Refugio de Vida Silvestre Barra del Colorado.⁵
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera dissecta (Schott) Croat & Grayum
2. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74: 659 (1987) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Monstera dissecta
Additional photos by David Scherberich
Additional photos from iNaturalist by frogman44, bkoilpillai, Rino, Damon Tighe, Stewart Blackwell, aargon, J. Wedel, Marcel Esquivel, Jonathan Lovet and Matheus Soares
Additional photos from Wikimedia Commons by Kai Squires, Monstera enjoyer and T R Shankar Raman
