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Monstera dubia; photograph (c) Nathan Van Cooten, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Nathan Van Cooten, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-01

Monstera dubia (Kunth) Engl. & K.Krause

Shingles plant

Araceae · Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast +14 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Monstera dubia, photograph (c) River Ahlquist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Monstera dubia, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Monstera dubia, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Monstera dubia, photograph (c) Pablo Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Monstera dubia, photograph (c) Pablo Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Monstera dubia, photograph (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.9°C
Record low 16.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Sep, Oct and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,837mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–32DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Monstera dubia is a species of plant in the genus Monstera native to Central and South America. M. dubia is known for the dramatic transformation of its foliage makes as it climbs from seed stage on the forest floor, to strongly patterned leaves shingling closely up a host tree trunk or other surface, until mature leaves with fenestrations similar to Monstera deliciosa appear. This transformation is an example of leaf dimorphism. Dubia refers to dubious, because authors were not certain that the species fell within the Dicot genus Marcgravia, where it was initially placed.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Monstera dubia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Monstera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Monstera in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “climber”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,973 mm of 2,768 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 1.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,768 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,973 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month May at 311 mm, driest month January at 182 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,644 mm to 4,648 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,837 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,768 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 32 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.9 °C, the absolute minimum 16.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 17.3 °C to 24.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +39 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Monstera in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “climber”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Monstera dubia through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, September, October and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 21.1 °C; 2,768 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°40°37.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 26–32RH 67–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 434 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 26–3029 / 27–3029 / 27–3129 / 26–3028 / 25–2927 / 25–2927 / 25–2928 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 26–3029 / 26–30
Night °C22 / 20–2422 / 20–2423 / 20–2522 / 20–2522 / 19–2421 / 18–2421 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 19–2422 / 20–2422 / 20–2422 / 20–24
Rain mm182 / 40–367187 / 31–358226 / 49–374216 / 126–426311 / 90–526268 / 44–519227 / 40–475210 / 41–513224 / 73–527248 / 107–607253 / 129–502216 / 89–356
DLI32 / 28–3532 / 28–3731 / 28–3929 / 26–3627 / 23–3126 / 22–3028 / 23–3230 / 26–3532 / 26–3732 / 24–3630 / 24–3430 / 27–34
RH %67 / 62–7168 / 61–7168 / 62–7168 / 64–7269 / 66–7369 / 65–7468 / 61–7368 / 60–7367 / 61–7368 / 63–7369 / 64–7369 / 64–71

Records on both sides of the equator: the 31 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 434 cells that remain: the 89 at least 10° south and the 345 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 434 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (958 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1727:2535 (3.625, -53.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 434 distinct grid cells holding 958 of the 998 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (31 cells poleward of 10° north, 89 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1727:2535 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.50_-53.125, lapse-corrected +39 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 240 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker9.135, -79.744 · in the densest population, 620 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“climber” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1319 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 958 of them in the land cells it reads, of 998 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 527 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 172 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 321 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1319 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Monstera dubia, photograph 1did not loadMonstera dubia, photograph 2did not loadMonstera dubia, photograph 3did not loadMonstera dubia, photograph 4did not loadMonstera dubia, photograph 5did not loadMonstera dubia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) River Ahlquist, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Pablo Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pouteria caimito Pouteria caimito Abiu Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoCostus scaber Costus scaber Indian head ginger Photo: CC BY, fmunozSymphonia globulifera Symphonia globulifera Boarwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Romain BoisseauAnthurium gracile Anthurium gracile Red Pearls Anthurium Photo: CC BY, Letizia WeichgrebeHeliconia chartacea Heliconia chartacea Pink flamingo heliconia Photo: CC BY, AidanWarczewiczella amazonica Warczewiczella amazonica Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Sebastián Ordóñez

Other Monstera 13 in the reference

Monstera acuminata Monstera acuminata Araceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezMonstera adansonii Monstera adansonii Adanson's monstera Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciMonstera deliciosa Monstera deliciosa Swiss cheese plant Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonMonstera epipremnoides Monstera epipremnoides Araceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMonstera lechleriana Monstera lechleriana Araceae Photo: CC BY, Martha Lucia Ortiz-MorenoMonstera obliqua Monstera obliqua Window-Leaf Monstera Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovMonstera pinnatipartita Monstera pinnatipartita Araceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMonstera siltepecana Monstera siltepecana Silver monstera Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresMonstera spruceana Monstera spruceana Araceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffMonstera standleyana Monstera standleyana Araceae Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightMonstera tacanaensis Monstera tacanaensis Araceae Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonMonstera tenuis Monstera tenuis Araceae Photo: CC BY, Aaron Liston all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Marcgravia dubia; Monstera acreana; Monstera irritans. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araceae
Described by
(Kunth) Engl. & K.Krause
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Belize +13
Wild records
1319 in range · 527 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 9 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.50_-53.125, lapse-corrected +39 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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