Re: identity of the dwarf Monstera deliciosa

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 2000.05.30 at 22:19:01(4651) We have this "dwarf Monstera deliciosa" here at Selby Gardens. It has always been puzzling. Some people thought it might be an unknown Amydrium. I believe this plant has been discussed on the newslist before and I am sure everyone is relieved to know what it really is. We got this plant when it was in the trade about 8-10 years ago, back when it was common practice to use tree fern totems for growing vines. Origin was unknown. When grown on a totem, it has the ungainly habit of sending its long shoots downward. We propagated divisions of this plant and grew them out in our display house to see if leaves or growth habit would change once it grew larger. After the stems grew down and touched the ground then they headed back upwards, but tended to scramble around quite a bit. This behavior made it difficult to keep the plant on the totem. Guess this is why it went out of production. Its an easy plant to grow in central-south Florida but never gets large leaf blades like Monstera deliciosa. Since it so resembled a Monstera everyone came to call it the "dwarf" Monstera deliciosa. That name never seemed to "fit" but at least it gave us something to call it. Rhaphidophora look very much like Monstera. Being in the same subtribe they must be closely related. What are the main morphological differences between Monstera and Rhaphidophora? Is it primarily some kind of microscopic character (locules, placentation?) that distinquishes the two genera? Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More In a message dated 05/26/2000 10:22:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time, p.boyce@rbgkew.org.uk writes: << The dwarf Monstera deliciosa that many of you grow is Rhaphidophora tetrasperma, native to Peninsular malaysia and southern Thailand. >>

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