Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hello and Welcome to the Group. Topic for discussion: Monstera Deliciosa.

Keith thanks for making this group happen and I hope it is not an imposition to start off with a discussion here?

Last week I ventured to the side of the house where in previous years the well shaded area was home to the shade loving plants and more fussy of my over grown house plants. I go out there from time to time and because I had camera in hand I thought I would snap a few photos of my Monstera Deliciosa which is quite mature and also now a very large plant. It produces fruit and I managed to snap a few photos of the healthy looking crop of fruit, sometimes referred to as, fruit salad plant fruit. It has never been sprayed and it lives a very primitive life but thrives and it has made it through a few droughts lately which makes me think it gets water from very deep down. I have a little bit of information here about the plant, courtesy of Wikipedia :

 

Monstera deliciosa (also called Ceriman, Swiss Cheese Plant, Fruit Salad Plant, Monster fruit, Monsterio Delicio, Monstereo, Mexican Breadfruit, Monstera, split-leaf philodendron, Locust and Wild Honey, Windowleaf

Click here for more information.

MONSTERA, Monstera deliciosa 

Click here too.

Fruit Salad PlantOften called the Fruit Salad plant or the Swiss Cheese Plant as the ripened fruit has a pineapple-banana odour and fruit salad taste. The mature fruit has a yellow-green, violet-spotted rind of hexagonal plates covering a creamy-white, soft pulp. Highly ornamental, an excellent choice for heavily shaded positions.

More info here too from this Australian site.

Now my question for this group is.

Has anyone ever eaten the fruit of this plant?

I have never tried it and just leave the fruit on the plant and forget about it. I have read that it can be a bit tricky as far as eating the fruit goes because it must be fully ripe and I read that the fruits can take a year to ripen fully. So if you have any information and wish to share please do so. Most people who grow these plants start out with them as pot plants because of their lovely shiny green heart shaped leaves and for one of these plants to even think of fruiting, it takes at least four years and conditions must be fully met for that to happen.

Regards from Milli.

10 comments:

  1. Perfect Milli - am just off to bed so will return on the morrow to read - so great you did this. I am a slow at launching this group but it is almost ready!.
    ciao for now

    Keith

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  2. I have never eaten it, but my taste goes a lot by what it looks like. Won't tell ya what this looks like, but I sure aint eating it.

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  3. Thanks Keith and it was very late when I placed in too so I understand fully. TBC..that means to be continued.

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  4. LOL @ Sue's comment here and I can agree with you here Sue.

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  5. Interesting... it looks like a tropical plant... I live in Florida and I've never seen this before. Where is it's native habitat? And I would like to join this group -

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  6. Hi Sandy I will try to invite you here and it is a tropical plant. Delicous Monster) is a creeping vine native to tropical rain forests from southern Mexico south to Panama. So many of us here buy them as an indoor pot plant and when we find them too big for inside then we plant them out and this example above of mine is a good example of how large they become. I will try to invite you now and if I am not successful I will ask Keith to do the invite when he is next back online.

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  7. Surely there must be some info somewhere whether and when this fruit is edible or not? I have never seen this fruit before, the plant must like it in your garden Milli.

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  8. LOL thanks Mia it thrives in the shady side of the house. I did place a link here in the blog but maybe it was missed. I am wandering if anyone has actually had a personal experience with this fruit or plant even.

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  9. I will have to test these before eating. lol
    When our cats will not eat our meat then then is time to throw it away.
    It has been fed with chemicals.
    Imported lamb has been suspect too and the lure of factory farming is making it everyone's problem.
    Eat 5 fruits or vegetables a day??? Only if you are mad. Irradiated to stop rot, waxed for long shelf life, full of pesticides.
    It is a brave person who looks for a long life here.

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  10. Unseen and unheard of!
    These plants will probably not grow here, we are too close to the artic zone.

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