MONSTERA EGREGIA
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera egregia Schott, published in Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 2: 53 (1864). The protologue is reproduced below.
DISTRIBUTION: C. & S. Mexico to Belize: Belize, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Belize: Toledo Mexico: Oaxaca, Tabasco, Veracruz iNaturalist: Puebla, Veracruz.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Robust nomadic vine, appressed-climbing habit. Seedlings: bearing foliose leaves. Juvenile plants: root climbers; stems dark green with white dots, smooth, cylindrical; internodes 3–8 cm long, 4–7 mm diam.; petiole distinct, light green, smooth, 6–15 cm long, sheathed to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent and distally involute; blades lanceolate, attenuate to truncate at base, acuminate, subcoriaceous, 8–15 × 5–12 cm, not appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent or present. Adult plants: root climbers; stems dark green or light brown, smooth, cylindrical; internodes 0.3–5.0 cm long, 1.5–5.5 cm diam., 0.2–0.9 times as long as wide; anchor roots light brown; feeder roots black; petioles light green with white dots or white punctations, smooth, 45.0–66.5 cm long, sheathed to base of the lamina, less frequently to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent, distally open; geniculum 2.0–3.5 cm long; blades ovate, unequal and rounded at base, short-acuminate at apex, subcoriaceous, drying dark brown to blackened above, paler and yellow-brown to dark brown below, 40–76 × 18.5–32.0 cm, 1.9–2.4 times longer than wide, not decurrent on the geniculum; midrib ribbed adaxially, convex abaxially, drying black or yellowish on both surfaces, primary lateral veins 12–24 per side, strongly sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially, departing midrib at 40–60°, drying generally darker, sometimes paler; secondary veins moderately parallel and indistinct, collective veins not visible; fenestrations absent or present, ellipsoid when present; margins entire.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on ascending stems, 1 or 2 simultaneously at flowering time, arranged in the leaf axils; peduncle smooth, 22–25 cm long; spathe long-acuminate, light green during development, creamy-yellow externally and white internally at anthesis, deciduous after anthesis, 14–20 × 7–13 cm, up to 5 cm longer than spadix; spadix white (during development and at anthesis), (11)15–20 cm long, 3.0–4.5 cm diam., 5.1 times longer than wide; basal sterile flowers 4–6 mm long, with a reddish-brown stigmatic secretion; fertile flowers 5–7 mm long; stamens 2–8 mm long, with laminar filaments; anthers 1.5–2.0 mm long; ovary rectangular in longitudinal section, ribbed, 2.5–3.5 × 1.0–1.5 mm; style hexagonal, 3–4 × 3–4 mm; stigmatophore slightly columnar and sunken on style, 0.3–0.5 mm long; stigma linear, with a reddish-brown stigmatic secretion; berries with a white stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap creamy; pulp white; seeds 11–15 mm long.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Monstera egregia is known from Mexico (ranging from Veracruz to Oaxaca, Tabasco) and Belize, (Toledo) at 100–1500 m, in Tropical moist forest and Premontane wet forest life zones. Flowering registered January to May and October-November. Fruiting in January to March, June, July, August, October and November.⁴
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin egregius, "outstanding" or "remarkable." Although the original description does not explicitly explain the name, it likely refers to the striking size of the entire leaves of this Mexican species.
NOTES:
1. The species, a member of sect. Monstera, is recognized by its fully sheathed densely speckled petioles, large entire and non-perforate to markedly perforate leaves with the perforations with mostly a single row on each side, 12–24 primary lateral veins per side, with 2–4 of these aggregated within 2 cm of the base as well as by the long-pedunculate inflorescence (22–25 cm long) and by having the margins of the style prominently raised on drying. Monstera egregia was confused with Monstera standleyana but that species is restricted to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, and differs by its light green and mottled petioles (vs. dark green petioles with slightly wavy wings), fenestrated leaves (vs. usually without fenestrations), stigmatophore slightly columnar and sunken on style (vs. stigmatophore columnar) and stigma linear (vs. stigma circular). Nomenclatural remarks:—In the original protologue of Monstera egregia, Schott (1864) included the description and some information on the original locality of the species, which he cited as follows: “Mexico (v.v. cult.!).” This suggests that the species was described using a cultivated plant which came from Mexico. Engler & Krause (1908), in their revision of the Monsteroideae, cited Monstera egregia (as a synonym of Monstera karwinskyi) and referring H. W. Schott’s Icones Aroideae et Reliquiae (Schott 1984). Madison (1977), in his revision of Monstera, argued that illustrations No. 2238 and 2239 in Schott (1984) could represent the type material of Monstera egregia. The authors only managed to access illustration No. 2238 which includes three color drawings: (top left) the base of the leaf blade and the upper part of the petiole; (in the middle) the lower surface of the leaf blade and part of petiole; (bottom right) the adaxial part of a portion of the petiole. There is also a fourth pencil drawing (probably made later by Schott?) of the cross section of the petiole. Additionally, in the lower right part of the illustration there are two names annotated by Schott himself (Monstera karwinskyi and Monstera egregia), where traces of erased pencil writings can be observed, as well as pen annotations that overwrite both erased and penciled remnants. Based on their observations, the authors concluded that the following may have occurred: (1) the author initially thought with some doubt that this plant was Monstera karwinskyi, so he made a pencil annotation as “Monstera karwinskyi?”; (2) subsequently, the author changed his mind and crossed out the first identification and then noted (above the epithet karwinskyi) “egregia”;(3) finally, the author changed his judgment again back to Monstera karwinskyi, so he decided to overwrite the annotations made in pencil and wrote “karwinskyi” in ink. After deeply examining the morphological characteristics of illustration No. 2238, the authors concluded that it matches perfectly with the characters included in the original protologue of Monstera egregia and not with those of Monstera karwinskyi. It could be that the illustration No. 2238 fit flawlessly with the original description contained in the protologue of Monstera egregia; however, since the illustrations lack significant information, such as dates, it cannot be certain that Schott used it when described the species, so the illustration No. 2238 could not be considered as a holotype or lectotype (see Coelho & Mayo 2007). The authors tried to trace some original material in the visited/reviewed herbaria, however, they were unsuccessful. This could be due to the fact that the plant was described when alive and an herbarium specimen was never made. No material of this species was listed by Riedl & Riedl-Dorn (1988) as having been destroyed. Due to the absence of an original material, the authors designate the specimen M. Madison 597 (GH, two sheets: 02286762 and 02286700) as neotype.⁴
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera egregia Schott
2. Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 2: 53 (1864) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Monstera egregia
Additional photos from iNaturalist by Eugenio Padilla, Juan Carlos López Domínguez, buffalobuffalobuffalobuffalobuffalo, Sarahí Díaz-Mota, rene_vela, Juan Cruzado Cortés, Alexis López Hernández, Aurelio Molina Hernández., César Hernández Hernández, José Rodrigo Carral Domínguez, Laura Aguirre Franco and angelicabecerrat
Additional photo from Wikimedia Commons by Skjold Søndergaard
