MONSTERA PUNCTULATA
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera punctulata (Schott) Schott ex Engl., published in Monographiae Phanerogamarum 2: 259 (1879). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Anadendrum punctulatum Schott
DISTRIBUTION: S. Mexico to C. America: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Panama.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: iNaturalist: Alajuela, Chiriquí, Oaxaca, Puntarenas, Veracruz.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Robust nomadic vine, canopy plant, appressed-climbing and pendent habit. Seedlings: filiform. Juvenile plants: root climbers; stems light-brown or beige, warty with brown pustules; internodes 3–8 cm long, 0.5–1.5 cm diam.; petiole not visible, dark green, smooth, 2–4 cm long; blades obovate or orbicular, cordate to subcordate at base, obtuse to short-acuminate at apex, sometimes white-spotted, sometimes variegated, 5–10 × 4–8 cm, appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent. Adult plants: root climbers; stems yellowish or beige, warty with abundant pustules, dorsoventrally compressed and sulcate on one side; internodes 2–6(20) cm long, 1–4 cm diam., 1.5–2.0 times longer than wide; cataphylls deciduous, but leaving dry fragments on the peduncle; anchor roots dark brown; feeder roots beige, warty and corky; petiole light-green with white dots, warty and striated at base, with pustules, 30–65 cm long, sheathed up to 2 cm before base of the geniculum; petiole sheath deciduous with fibrous residues; geniculum striated or smooth, flattened adaxially, convex abaxially, 3–5 cm long; blades ovate to broadly elliptical or oblong, cordate at base, overlapping posterior lobes, obtuse or acuminate at apex, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, drying yellowish with blackish dots, light green or light brown, 45–110 × 30–45 cm, 1.3–1.6 times longer than wide, not decurrent on the geniculum; midrib flattened adaxially, convex abaxially, drying yellowish or light brown on both surfaces; primary lateral veins 11–20 per side, prominent on both surfaces, drying yellowish; secondary veins reticulate towards the margin and prominent, wavy throughout its length when dry; collective veins not visible; fenestrations rounded or oval, arranged throughout the blade; margins pinnatilobed, 4–9 lobes per side, occasionally 1-nerved and connected by a filament.⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on ascending and pendent stems, 3–5 simultaneously at flowering time, arranged in the axils of the leaves or into cataphylls; peduncle light-green with pustules generating a warty surface, 6–20 cm long, 1.5–2.5 cm diam.; spathe obtuse or mucronate, dark green during development, green suffused with yellowish-green externally and white internally at anthesis, coriaceous, tearing longitudinally when fully opened, deciduous after anthesis, 10–20 × 6–10 cm, as long as the spadix; spadix white during development, creamy-yellow at anthesis, 10–15 cm long, 2.5–3.0 cm diam., 4.0–5.6 times longer than wide; basal sterile flowers 4–6 mm long, with yellowish secretion; fertile flowers 5–8 mm long; stamens 2–8 mm long, with laminar filaments; anthers 1.5–3.0 mm long; ovary rectangular in longitudinal section, ribbed, 5–6 × 3–4 mm; style hexagonal, 3–4 × 4–5 mm; stigma linear, with transparent sticky secretion; berries with a green stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap moss-green; pulp white; seeds dark-brown with white dots, oblong, elongated, 6–9 mm long.⁴
ECOLOGY:
Monstera punctulata ranges from Mexico to Panama, at (100) 300–1700 m, in Premontane wet rain forest and Lower montane rain forest life zones. Flowering has been recorded in August-September. Fruiting in January-April, June-July.⁴
ETYMOLOGY:
Latin punctulata, "spotted," in reference to the numerous white spots on the petiole.⁶
NOTES:
1. The species is a member of sect. Marcgraviopsis and is characterized by its massive size, strongly flattened stems, frequently warty, whitish speckled petioles with sheath extending to the apex with the sheath usually deciduous, large heavily perforated yellow-green-drying blades which are cordate at base and both pinnatifid and perforate with 12–18 primary lateral veins per side and conspicuous reticulate veins, a single inflorescence, moderately long pedunculate which dries golden yellow in fruit, spathe light green externally, white internally, spathe splitting lengthwise when opened at male anthesis. Monstera punctulata is a robust species of pre-montane and cloud forests. The collections in herbaria do not reflect the abundance of this species, because botanists avoid collecting it because of its tendency to bloom in the canopy and because of the large size of the plants, which require a single collection to be represented by up to five parts. Some Monstera punctulata plants develop hanging stems, which can be reproductive. Such plants (which could be considered as a morphotype) have little-fenestrated and often entire leaves. However, the morphology of the inflorescence, the flowers and the way of opening the spathe and the color of the ripe fruits are similar in both morphotypes, so they are considered here as variations of the same species (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 punctulata is protected in the Zona Protectora Cerros de La Carpintera, Zona Protectora Las Tablas, Estación Biológica Las Cruces and Parque Internacional de La Amistad.⁵
3. Juvenile plants in cultivation resemble Monstera dubia and Monstera tuberculata but show a rapid increase in leaf size; the leaves soon become scattered along the stem and perforate, even in plants under 2 m tall, and an all-green juvenile has not been seen.⁷
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera punctulata (Schott) Schott ex Engl.
2. Monographiae Phanerogamarum 2: 259 (1879) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Monstera punctulata
7. Boyce 2000. Juvenile monsteroids. Aroid-L, 12 June 2000
Additional photos by David Scherberich
Additional photos from iNaturalist by Dan Fitzgerald (Fitz), alexordorica, Gabriel Rodriguez, Marcel Esquivel, LostInCR, Terry, Roberto García, Anette Hernández González, Aurelio Molina Hernández., Challen Willemsen, Dean Hester, dres08, Irene, Kristijan Jerkovic, Paulina Solís, ramon_d and Bert Filemyr
Additional photo from Wikimedia Commons by Irene
