MONSTERA ‘RELLAS JEWEL’
PARENTAGE:
Monstera gracilis × Monstera obliqua 'Tarapoa'
ORIGIN:
Zsolt Varga; a deliberate cross made in spring 2024, the one surviving seed germinating in July 2024; accepted by the IAS Aroid Cultivar Registry
HYBRIDIZER:
Zsolt Varga
DESCRIPTION:
Growth Habit: A vigorous hemiepiphytic climber. Leaf Blade: Falcate juvenile leaves like those of Monstera gracilis, becoming elliptic with round fenestrations at the semi-adult stage and ovate and slightly bullate at maturity, irregularly fenestrated with filaments and multiple holes; venation arcuate; not variegated. Wider and longer than gracilis, and more boldly and irregularly fenestrated than the pollen parent.
NOTES:
Registered on aroidcultivars.org with Cultivar Type 'Hybrid' and both parents named, which is why it sits here and not on the CULTIVARS tab. Named by the originator for his daughter Rella. The parentage is the registrant's own statement; no independent confirmation exists.
STORY:
STORY TITLE: A single seed
Zsolt Varga made the cross in the spring of 2024, pollinating Monstera gracilis with pollen of Monstera sp. obliqua 'Tarapoa'. Only one seed survived, and it germinated that July. The seedling grew into a true intermediate between its parents, gracilis-like when young but maturing into much wider and longer leaves, fenestrated more boldly and irregularly than the pollen parent.¹ Zsolt Varga named it for Rella, the originator's daughter.¹
REFERENCES:
Zsolt Varga