MONSTERA PINNATIPARTITA
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera pinnatipartita Schott, published in Oesterreichisches Botanisches Wochenblatt 7: 197 (1857). The protologue is reproduced below.
DISTRIBUTION: C. & S. Trop. America: Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Colombia: Bolívar (Colombia), Caquetá, Huila, Magdalena, Meta, Nariño, Risaralda Ecuador: Esmeraldas, Guayas, Los Ríos, Pichincha iNaturalist: Antioquia, Caldas, Chocó, Coclé, Colón-PA, Darién, Magdalena, Meta, Puntarenas, Veraguas.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine, appressed-climbing habit. Seedlings: bearing foliage leaves. Juvenile plants: root climbers; stems dark green with white dots, smooth, cylindrical or flattened; internodes 3–6 cm long, 3–5 mm diam.; petiole distinct, dark green, smooth, 4–12 cm long, sheathed to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent; blades lanceolate, subcordate to truncate at base, acuminate at apex, coriaceous, 10–15 × 3–8 cm, not appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent or present. Adult plants: root climbers; stems smooth, cylindrical, or slightly dorsoventrally compressed, dark green with white dots; internodes 1–3 cm long, 1–3 cm diam., as long as wide; cataphylls light or dark, mottled or whitish, persistent or occasionally deciduous; anchor roots dark brown; feeder roots dark brown; petiole light or dark-green, mottled to whitish, smooth, 15–65 cm long, sheathed up to 3–6 cm before the geniculum or to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent, involute; geniculum smooth, sunken adaxially, convex abaxially, 2–3 cm long; blades ovate to lanceolate-ovate, broadly cuneate to rounded or truncate at base, obtuse to short-acuminate at apex, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, drying yellowish, blackish or light brown, 20–70 × 20–35 cm, (1.2)1.7–2.1 times longer than wide, decurrent on the geniculum, decurrent portion 1–2 mm wide; midrib ribbed adaxially, convex abaxially, drying black or yellowish on both surfaces; primary lateral veins 6–20 per side, slightly sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially, departing midrib at 35°–75°, drying black or yellowish; collective vein not visible; fenestrations absent or present; margins deeply pinnatifid, 3–10 lobes per side, 1.5–5.0 cm wide, 1–3 veins per lobe.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on ascending stems, 1–3 simultaneously at flowering time, arranged in the axils of the leaves or into cataphylls; peduncle smooth, mottled, 10–25 cm long, 1.0–1.5 cm diam.; spathe acuminate to long-acuminate, yellowish green externally during development, white yellowish externally and white internally at anthesis, overlapping basal margins, deciduous after anthesis; 12–20 × 6–9 cm, up to 7 cm longer than the spadix; spadix white during development, creamy-yellow at anthesis, 6–15 cm long, 1.3–2.5 cm diam., (4.4)5.5–9.1 times longer than wide; basal sterile flowers 3–5 mm long, with a rusty-red stigmatic secretion; fertile flowers 4–7 mm long; stamens 2–6 mm long, with laminar filaments; anthers 1.5–2.0 mm long; ovary rectangular in longitudinal section, ribbed, 4–6 × 3–4 mm; style hexagonal, 2–3 × 3–5 mm; stigmatophore columnar, 0.3–0.5 mm long; stigma linear, with an orange stigmatic secretion; berries with a yellowish-green stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap cream-white; pulp white; seeds oblong, black, 5–6 mm long.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Monstera pinnatipartita ranges from El Salvador and Costa Rica to Panama and Colombia (Magdalena, Bolívar, Huila, Valle, Risaralda, Nariño, Meta and Caquetá), northern Venezuela, western Ecuador (Esmeraldas, Pichincha, Los Rios, Guayas) and Peru (Loreto, Ucayali, San Martín, Huánuco), at 0–600 m, rarely to 1000 m, in Tropical wet forest, Premontane wet and Lower montane rain forest life zones. Flowering has been recorded in January, September-November. Fruit in January, March-June and October.⁴
DISTRIBUTION MAPS:
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin pinnatus, "feathered," and partitus, "divided," describing the deeply pinnatifid adult leaf blades.
NOTES:
1. The species is a member of sect. Monstera. It differs from the other species of the genus by the light or dark green petiole, speckled to whitish, the persistent petiolar sheath with involute wings, the deeply pinnatifid leaf blade, and externally yellowish-white and internally white spathe. It can be confused with individuals of Monstera dissecta but that has pinnatilobed leaves with wider lobes (4‒10 cm vs. 1.5‒5.0 cm in Monstera pinnatipartita). Monstera pinnatipartita is distributed throughout the Pacific slope, being the most frequent species, growing by estuaries, open areas and primary forest. This species develops hanging stems when the plant cannot continue its ascent, but these hanging stems are never reproductive. Moreover, pre-adult plants can develop inflorescences in ascending stems when they have fenestrate and not pinnatifid leaves (Cedeño-Fonseca et al. 2022). For more details about the taxonomic comments and nomenclatural note see Cedeño-Fonseca et al. (2022).⁴
2. Conservation status: Monstera pinnatipartita is protected in the Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco, Zona Protectora El Rodeo, Reserva Forestal Golfo Dulce, Reserva Biológica Isla del Caño, Parque Nacional Carara and Parque Nacional Corcovado.⁵
3. Madison's 1977 revision of Monstera still included this plant, under the illegitimate name Monstera dilacerata, whose type turned out to be an Epipremnum from Southeast Asia (see Monstera dissecta).⁷ Tom Croat identified Michael Grayum's 1997 paper (Phytologia 82(1): 49) as the one that restored the name Monstera pinnatipartita.⁶,⁷
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera pinnatipartita Schott
2. Oesterreichisches Botanisches Wochenblatt 7: 197 (1857) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Monstera pinnatipartita
6. Grayum 1997. Nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on Costa Rican Araceae. Phytologia 82(1): 30–57
7. Aroid-L mailing list, Tom Croat, May 4th, 2022
Additional photos from iNaturalist by Jeir Ortega Galvan, shirleycampos, Marvin López M., Diego Amaya, Leonardo Álvarez-Alcázar, Alexander Bolaños Brenes, Frank Chaves, Juan Francisco Cruz Mejía, Letizia Weichgrebe, Rosario Douglas, Vitaly Alyonkin, Alex Espinosa, biancolini23, bubulletea, EMIL MEIDNA, Mauricio Cordero and pkondrashov
Additional photo from Wikimedia Commons by damonsalveo
