Species
+

Monstera deliciosa Liebm.

Ceriman, Delicious Monster, Fruit salad plant, Mexican Breadfruit

Climate known 51 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Monstera deliciosa, the Swiss cheese plant or split-leaf philodendron, is a species of flowering plant. The common name "Swiss cheese plant" is also used for the related species from the same genus, Monstera adansonii. The common name "split-leaf philodendron" is also used for the species Philodendron bipinnatifidum.

Text from Wikipedia, “Monstera deliciosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Monstera

Monstera is a genus of 59 species of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae, native to tropical regions of central and south America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Monstera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
Liebm.
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +1
Wild records
264 in range· 102 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
May, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1769mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 324 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Monstera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1769 mm a year, wettest September at 324 mm, driest March at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.7 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Monstera borsigiana Engl.; Monstera borsigiana K.Koch; Monstera deliciosa subsp. borsigiana Engl.; Monstera deliciosa subsp. sierrana G.S.Bunting; Monstera deliciosa var. borsigiana (K.Koch) Engl. and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Monstera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1355 mm of 1769 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.5 °C against a yearly mean of 20.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1769 mm a year, wettest September at 324 mm, driest March at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1769 mm a year at the habitat, 1355 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 324 mm, driest March at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1007 mm to 3161 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.7 °C, the absolute minimum 4.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.7 °C to 18.7 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Monstera, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jan to 27 °C in May; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1769 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 177 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–41RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 177 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 19–2724 / 21–2826 / 22–3027 / 24–3227 / 23–3326 / 22–3125 / 21–3025 / 21–3025 / 21–2924 / 21–2823 / 20–2823 / 19–27
Night °C12 / 8–1913 / 8–1914 / 9–2016 / 11–2217 / 13–2418 / 13–2417 / 13–2418 / 13–2418 / 13–2316 / 12–2214 / 10–2113 / 8–19
Rain mm43 / 7–11240 / 9–9537 / 6–7451 / 6–99119 / 25–181280 / 161–402292 / 167–450281 / 163–496324 / 175–545178 / 79–38273 / 17–21151 / 8–149
DLI27 / 22–3432 / 27–3938 / 34–4541 / 38–4840 / 37–4636 / 32–3936 / 32–4036 / 32–3931 / 28–3530 / 27–3428 / 24–3426 / 21–33
RH %63 / 53–6961 / 51–6860 / 48–6660 / 49–6562 / 53–6767 / 62–7066 / 62–7166 / 63–7169 / 64–7267 / 62–7165 / 57–6964 / 54–69

Each figure is the median across the 177 grid cells holding the 259 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1508:1789 (14.575, -90.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 177 distinct grid cells holding the 259 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1508:1789 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 14.50_-90.625, lapse-corrected +307 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1463 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala· introduced: Baleares, Azores, Ascension, Comoros, Seychelles, Korea, Bangladesh, Cook Is., Society Is., Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.513, -96.944 · in the densest population, 93 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 264 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 102 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 218 km away. 1211 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 264 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Monstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosaMonstera deliciosa

Photographs: (c) avocat, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Monstera deliciosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Photoinhibition and Zeaxanthin Formation in Intact Leaves
Barbara Demmig, Klaus Winter, Almuth Krüger, Franz–Christian Czygan (1987) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Light Response of CO2 Assimilation, Dissipation of Excess Excitation Energy, and Zeaxanthin Content of Sun and Shade Leaves
Barbara Demmig‐Adams, Klaus Winter, Almuth Krüger, Franz–Christian Czygan (1989) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
The effect of medicinal plants of Islamabad and Murree region of Pakistan on insulin secretion from INS‐1 cells
Zakir Hussain, Abdul Waheed, Rizwana Aleem Qureshi, Dadu Khan Burdi (2004) · Phytotherapy Research
Capacity for Energy Dissipation in the Pigment Bed in Leaves With Different Xanthophyll Cycle Pools
Barbara Demmig‐Adams, WW Iii Adams (1994) · Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
Modulation of PsbS and flexible vs sustained energy dissipation by light environment in different species
Barbara Demmig‐Adams, Volker Ebbert, David L. Mellman, Kristine E. Mueh (2006) · Physiologia Plantarum
Structure and chemical composition of endodermal and rhizodermal/hypodermal walls of several species
Jürgen Zeier, A. GOLL, Masaki Yokoyama, Ichirou Karahara (1999) · Plant Cell & Environment
An Overlapping-Free Leaf Segmentation Method for Plant Point Clouds
Dawei Li, Yan Cao, Guoliang Shi, Xin Cai (2019) · IEEE Access
Leaf Segmentation on Dense Plant Point Clouds with Facet Region Growing
Dawei Li, Yan Cao, Xue‐song Tang, Siyuan Yan (2018) · Sensors
New species and new records of Meliolaceae from Panama
Délfida Rodríguez Justavino, Roland Kirschner, Meike Piepenbring (2014) · Fungal Diversity

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Monstera 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 72 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.