MONSTERA PITTIERI
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera pittieri Engl., published in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 37: 116 (1905). The protologue is reproduced below.
DISTRIBUTION: S. Costa Rica to Colombia: Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Colombia: Chocó.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine, appressed-climbing and pendent habit. Seedlings: filiform. Juvenile plants: root climbers; stems light to dark green, flattened; internodes 4–6 cm long, 3–5 mm diam.; petiole slightly visible, dark green, smooth, 6–12 cm long, sheathed to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath persistent; blades lanceolate, subcordate to truncate at base, acuminate at apex, 7–15 × 5–8 cm, slightly appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent. Adult plants: root climbers; stems dark green, cylindrical or dorsoventrally compressed and slightly sulcate on one side; internodes 1–20 cm long, 0.5–1.0 cm diam., usually 3–20 times longer than wide; anchor roots dark brown; feeder roots corky; petiole light or dark-green, smooth, 6–10 cm long, sheathed up to 3 cm before the geniculum or to base of the geniculum; petiole sheath deciduous or slightly persistent with fibrous residues, ligule up to 1 cm long; geniculum smooth, flattened adaxially, convex abaxially, 1.5–2.5 cm long; blades broad to narrowly ovate, elliptical or oblong or lanceolate, broadly cuneate to rounded or truncated at base, obtuse to short-acuminate at apex, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, drying yellowish, blackish or greenish, 13–18 × 5–10 cm, not decurrent to the geniculum; midrib flattened adaxially, convex abaxially, drying yellowish or blackish on both surfaces, wavy distally; primary lateral veins 4–7 per side, obscure adaxially, prominent abaxially, departing midrib at 35–45°, drying yellowish or dark brown; secondary veins inconspicuous; collective veins not visible; fenestrations absent or present, one side of the blade more perforated than the other, 1–5 fenestrations per blade; margins entire.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on pendent stems, 1–9 simultaneously at flowering time, arranged in the axils of the leaves; peduncle smooth, 1–4 cm long, 2–6 mm diam.; spathe obtuse or mucronate, green externally during development, green externally and white internally at anthesis, tearing longitudinally when fully opened (rarely not tearing), the margins revolute, deciduous after anthesis; 9–12 × 6–8 cm, as long as the spadix; spadix white during development, creamy-yellow at anthesis, 4–9 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm diam., (2.4)3.0–3.6 times longer than wide; basal sterile flowers 4–5 mm long, with an orange stigmatic secretion; fertile flowers 5–7 mm long; stamens 0.5–3.5 mm long. with laminar filaments; anthers 1.5–2.0 mm long, the filaments not exceeding the styles at anthesis, the styles slightly separated from adjacent ones, allowing exposure of thecae; ovary ribbed, square in longitudinal section, 3–4 × 3–4 mm, narrower than style; style quadrangular, cylindrical or hexagonal, 3–5 × 3–4 mm; stigma linear, black post-anthesis; berries with a yellowish-green stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap yellow; pulp white; seeds oblong, black, 6–9 mm long.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Monstera pittieri ranges from Costa Rica (Atlantic) and Panama to Colombia, at 0–400 m, in Tropical moist forest and Tropical wet forest life zones. Flowering has been recorded in April-May, July-August, and November-December. Fruit in January-December.⁴
ETYMOLOGY:
After Henry Pittier (1857–1950), collector of the type specimen.⁶
NOTES:
1. The species, a member of sect. Marcgraviopsis, is characterized for its pendent habitat and it highly variable blades ranging from ovate to oblong and perforated or not. Plants with oblong blades are never perforated while those with more or less ovate blades have 1–4 small perforations on one side only. Monstera pittieri is one of a group of species that only bloom on hanging stems. It could be confused with Monstera tuberculata, but that species has the petiolar sheath (also deciduous) with a ligule up to 5 cm in length, the leaf blade basally cordate, the spathe yellow or cream externally, spadix with flowers not separated and the infructescence green when ripe. Monstera pittieri is also similar to Monstera luteynii, but the latter differs because it has smooth stems, fenestrated leaves and the petiolar sheath reaching the base of the geniculum or up to 3 cm below it (Cedeño-Fonseca et al. 2022). Monstera pittieri is most easily confused with entire leaved forms of Monstera obliqua but that species differs by having less coriaceous, more markedly oblique blades, having the inflorescences born on pendent stem (versus ascending stems for Monstera pittieri), peduncles 10–17 cm long (versus 1–4 for Monstera pittieri), orange mature stylar caps and seeds 3–5 mm diam. (in contrast to having the mature stylar cap yellow and seeds 6–9 mm diam. for Monstera pittieri).⁴
2. Conservation status: Monstera pittieri is protected in the Reserva Forestal Golfo Dulce, Reserva Forestal Río Macho, Refugio de Vida Silvestre Barra del Colorado, Refugio de Vida Silvestre Mixto Gandoca-Manzanillo, Estación Biológica La Selva, Reserva Biológica Hitoy Cerere, Parque Nacional Carara, Parque Nacional Corcovado and Parque Nacional Tortuguero.⁵
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera pittieri Engl.
2. Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 37: 116 (1905) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Monstera pittieri
Additional photos from iNaturalist by Oliver Ingold, Natalia Decastro, Nick Helme and Leonardo Álvarez-Alcázar