Monstera

Species of this genus are common in the humid tropical forests of the equatorial belt of America . In the south , the range covers almost the entire territory of Brazil , and in the north includes the Yucatan Peninsula and most of Mexico . In the 19th century, the monstera was introduced into Southeast Asia and successfully introduced there.

Monstera is an evergreen liana with large - up to 45 cm - carved leaves. Monsters are unpretentious and even at home can grow up to several meters in length. To grow a large plant, you need a steady support.

Climbing plants do not tolerate direct sunlight, climb with the help of adventitious roots. In case of loss of contact with the soil, the plant continues to live as an epiphyte .

Leaves pinnate and perforated. Flowers are cobbed. Fruits are berries.

About 50 species are known ^[3] .

Some types:

• Monstera adansonii schott
• Monstera deliciosa Liebm. - Monstera is delicious , or Monstera is attractive
• Monstera dilacerata K.Koch
• Monstera dubia ( Kunth ) Engl. & K.Krause
• Monstera obliqua Miq.

Monstera has poisonous leaves. The plant does not have any milkers, however, in the intercellular spaces there are thin needle-like formations of calcium oxalate , called rafids, which, getting on the mucous membranes, can cause a strong toxic reaction. When you try to chew the leaves of the monstera with people or pets, the plant can cause poisoning. Typical symptoms include numbness and irritation of the mouth and throat, painful swelling, aphonia (loss of voice), and dysphagia .

A number of species are grown as decorative indoor or greenhouse plants. For example, the well-known delicious monstera .

At the beginning of the 18th century, legends of giant killer plants found in South American wilds circulated in Europe. Travelers said that after the attack of these plants, only skeletons remained from people and animals, literally pierced by long processes hanging from the trunk. There were reasons for such stories. Travelers mistook monster’s aerial roots for their insidious tentacles. Hanging down, the roots could sprout through the skeleton of a man lost in the jungle. The helpful imagination painted a completely different picture of the murder of the unfortunate. Thanks to such legends, the monster got its name, in Latin monstrum - a monster. Even more likely, the word monstera goes back to the Latin monstrosus - amazing, bizarre.

At first, botanists systematized the monstera in the genus Philodendron , but in 1763 the plant was isolated in a special genus. The first copies of the attractive monstera ( Monstera deliciosa ), which was first described as Philodendron pertusum , were brought to the UK in 1752. In the native land of the plant, in South America, this species was described in detail almost a century later by Danish botanist Frederick Michael Liebman (1813-1856) , who in 1849 published a monograph on plants in South America.

Monsters, in their natural habitat, were later encountered by Baron Wilhelm Friedrich Karwinsky, who led an expedition to South America organized by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1841-43. From that expedition, in particular, a herbarium leaf dated April 1841 with a pair of monstera leaves collected in the Mexican coastal region of Veracruz was preserved. Eighteen years later, this kind of monstera was described by Schott as Monstera karwinsky .

Since the end of the 18th century, monstera has become an increasingly popular indoor plant in Europe. Thanks to British colonial aspirations, the plant enters India in 1878 and spreads further east. Currently, Monstera is one of the most popular and famous indoor plants, whose homeland is South America . Research by botanists studying this genus of tropical vines continues today. The leading expert in the field of taxonomy of aroid plants is the American botanist, professor of the University of Missouri, Thomas Croatt. At the end of the 20th century, he described six new types of monster.

At room conditions, monstera leaves on average have a length of about 30 cm, but can be much larger.

Since the monstera is a liana, in room conditions they give it a vertical shape using various supports. This is done in order to reduce the area occupied by the plant in the room. In this case, it is desirable that the aerial roots reach the soil. Sometimes they are specially sent to the pot in which the monstera grows. In other cases, a separate bag of earth is made for each air root.

Before precipitation begins, droplets of sticky juice appear at the edges of the monstera leaves.

• Monstera // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.

• Monstera (English) : Tropicos taxon information.