Monstera, Ceriman

Familiar to many as the split-leaf philodendron, this native of tropical American forests, a member of the Arum family (to which belong more than 1,500 tropical species), is unlike any other fruit bearer you may have met heretofore. Its tremendous leaves (as wide as 3 feet) are perforated with decorative découpage (fenestration) that make it a well-represented ornamental in greenhouses, homes, and warm gardening areas around the country. Its flower consists of a central spadix surrounded by a hoodlike spathe—like others in the family, such as the jack-in-the-pulpit, calla lily, and anthurium. Twelve to fourteen months after the flowers appear the nearly foot-long spadix, the reptilian fruit, begins to ripen (one year’s crop ripens as the next year’s forms alongside it). The hexagonal puzzle pieces of this plantain-in-armor-plate soon begin to split from each other and from the creamy, banana-ish pulp within.