In this guide you'll learn: How & where to buy the monstera adansonii, how to care for your plant and answers to FAQs to keep your plant happy
About the monstera adansonii
The Monstera adansonii is a rare, easy to care for tropical vining plant with paper-thin, highly fenestrated leaves (filled with splits / holes) and a quick growing pattern.
This plant loves to climb and will quickly grow 6-12 inches of lush foliage in a year when given a moss pole and proper care. As it matures and climbs using aerial roots, it will grow larger leaves while the fenestrations act to let light pass down to lower leaves.
If you want to add a touch of the tropical rainforests to your office or home, the adansonii, otherwise known as Monkey Mask or Swiss Cheese plant, likes bright but indirect light near a window and lots of humidity, yet will be happy with most indoor climates, and is sure to turn heads from passers-by due to its unusual look.
If this is the plant for you, it is a little difficult to find available online, so check out our buyers guide towards the end of this article.
Monstera adansonii in the House & Office
Growing the adansonii indoors is easy enough for most beginners, and is more than achieveable for a home or office.
Give your plant a bright spot a few feet from a window with indirect light, but keep it away from south-facing windows so the leaves don’t burn, and group it with other plants to keep the humidity high, or mist it regularly.
If you can give it bright, indirect light and keep the humidity above 50%, your Monstera adansonii will happily reward you with healthy, deep green and highly fenestrated leaves for years.
Luckily, this plant is easy to grow in almost any location, but can quickly grow tall with new growth if given perfect conditions.
In the office this serves as a perfect conversation starter, as the leaves look almost alien to anyone who isn’t well versed in tropical foliage plants.
Monstera adansonii Size
Height: 30-90cm / 12-36in / 1-3ft
Spread: 30cm / 12in / 1ft
Monstera adansonii Care
Light: The Monstera adansonii will do well with bright indirect light, and will also survive in a little shade, but not low light. The best place for your plant is around 5-6 feet from a south-facing window, or closer to others. Keep it away from direct sunlight as this will scorch its leaves and cause your plant to dry out.
Soil: Your plant wants moist soil that drains quickly, and should never be left in waterlogged potting soil else it will get root rot, so ensure your pot has a drainage hole. A pre-made aroid soil mix would be ideal, but you can make your own using moss, orchid bark, perlite and worm castings. Coconut coir potting mix and similar indoor plant specific mixes with good drainage should also keep your plant happy.
Watering: The adansonii loves water, but doesn’t want to drown, so just keep the soil moist. Watering should be done as and when the first 1-2 inches of soil dries out, which may be every few days for a small pot or once a week or slightly less for larger pots. Our own experimentation shows that the larger the plant and pot, the less often it needs fresh water.
Humidity: While humidity levels over 50% is ideal, your plant will do OK with a bit less. We do recommend that you do whatever you can do to keep the humidity as high as possible, preferably over 60%, as that will dry the plant out less and require less watering. If the humidity gets too low, the plant may dry out and develop leaf edge burn. You should try increasing the humidity by misting the plant regularly, using a humidifier, grouping the plant together with several others or by placing the pot over a tray of water and pebbles. You can also move the plant to a higher-humidity room such as the bathroom or kitchen.
Feeding: This house plant should only be fertilised during spring and summer, once per month and twice per month during the peak of summer, with a standard fertiliser. Don’t feed during autumn or winter, outside of the main growing seasons.
Temperature: As a tropical plant, it likes heat, but will do fine in most indoor temperatures. It thrives at 18-27°C / 64-80°F’. It can certainly survive at lower temperatures but you should ensure that it doesn’t get too cold, and is moved further from cold windows during the winter.
Ailments: Yellow leaves could indicate either over watering, or over feeding, so you should cut back on whichever you are doing most often. Leaf edge burn suggests a lack of humidity so you should do what you can to increase it. Overall leaf browning could suggest that the plant receives too much direct light, so should be moved a little further away from the window.
Growing Surface: A moist moss pole will allow your plant to climb, just like it would in the wild where it climbs trees at the rainforest floor. As it climbs, the leaves will grow larger and more impressive.
Further care: We are producing a more thorough guide to care for the Monstera adansonii which you can read here.
Where To Buy Monstera adansonii online
Ebay (UK) / (USA)
Etsy
Bloombox Club (UK) / (USA)
Local Facebook Groups
While it is a rare plant in the wild, it is getting increasingly more common in plant stores and garden centres, and many online retailers which specialise in uncommon plants now have it available to purchase.
We recommend heading to Ebay and Etsy where you can choose the exact plant you receive, but you should ensure that wherever you buy from, they have plenty of positive reviews and a reliable return policy.
If your plant arrives damaged, infested with pests, or otherwise unhealthy, you should make sure not to introduce it to your other plants and instead to contact the retailer and request a refund.
FAQs
Is Monstera adansonii rare?
This plant is extremely rare in the wild due to the amount of competition for light, water and growing medium on the floor of tropical rainforests, but can be found climbing up trees in central and south America.
As a houseplant, it is relatively rare, but can often be found at many speciality plant shops, and is easy enough to find online.
What’s the difference between Monstera adansonii and obliqua?
The obliqua’s leaves typically have larger fenestrated holes than the adansonii. You could say that obliqua is ‘more hole than leaf’ and the adansonii is ‘more leaf than hole’.
The obliqua also has thinner leaves with wavy edges, and is much more rare than the adansonii. It is also slower and more difficult to grow.
Typically, if you are unsure whether you have an obliqua or an adansonii, you most likely have an adansonii, if only due to rarity.
Monstera
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