Monstera deliciosa
English: Mexican breadfruit; Swiss cheese Plant; Cheese Plant; Fruit salad plant; Fruit salad tree; Ceriman; Monster fruit; Split leaf philodendron; Windowleaf.
Name: monstera means "monstrous", refering to its size; deliciosa means "delicious", referring to the edible fruit.
Spanish: Costilla de Adán; Monsterio delicio; Monstereo; Balazo; Penglai banana; piñanona.
Italian: zampa di leone, meaning lion's paw.
Portuguese: Costela-de-adão.
French: Plante gruyère.
Region: southern Mexico, Panama, introduced to many tropical areas, Hawaii, Seychelles, Ascension Island, the Society Islands.
Habitat: humid tropical forests; lowlands and middle mountains.
Content: calcium oxalate.
Use: fruit edible; ornamental; aerial roots for ropes, baskets; medicnal.
Botany
Herb; epiphyte; up to 20 m high; seedlings grow until they find a tree trunk, then start to grow up towards the light, creeping up the tree.
Roots: aerial.
Leaves: large, ± 60 cm long and ± 50 cm broad; leathery, glossy; heart-shaped; pinnate;, entire when young, with lobes or hole, fenestrate when older.
Inflorescence: cream-white spathe, uniform, velvety, covering, like a hood; spadix yellowish white, ± 12 cm high, ± 3 cm in diameter; Flowers: bisexual.
Fruit: ripens slowly, in a year; taste and smell similar to pineapple and jackfruit.
Taxonomy: maybe confused with Philodendron bipinnatifidum.