Often 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.
| Height | Frost tol. | Pollination req'd | Evergreen/Deciduous | Harvest period |
| 2 | Medium | No | Evergreen | February - May |
We welcome your Tips on Monstera. Share Your Tip.
Grows and fruits outdoors even in our cool climate, burns in full sun. Fruit is hard to eat because of prickles inside it | Anthony Miceli - Mornington, VIC 25-Feb-2006
You're doing something wrong. had one yesterday, fantastic fruit, nothing but soft sweet fruit salad flesh. you don't eat the inside stem, and wait til the hexagonal plates fall away. | Mal - Toowoomba, QLD 12-Apr-2006
I seem to have fruits developing from an ex-indoor specimen transplanted into the garden, east-facing, but beneath an Australian native hedge..would get little direct sunlight but is threatening to take over the entire block! | Robin Knight - Newtown, VIC 05-Jun-2006
Monstera left in their pots, even huge pots, seem not to fruit with he same enthusiasm that those with roots in the garden soil seem to exhibit! | Robin Knight - Newtown, VIC 05-Jun-2006
They seem to bounce back well. I found a pot with just some yellowish stalks left began watering it a few days and i had new foliage unfurling and in 2 years it has become quite impressive for a potted plant. | Kathy Milligan - Warrnambool, VIC 15-Oct-2006
Apparently the fruit is ripe when the sections of skin come away and its easiest to scrape the flesh away from the stem with a fork | Kathy Milligan - Warrnambool, VIC 15-Oct-2006
I have 2 monstera's in an enclosure to my turtle pond and I use the water from the pond to water them, The 2 will fruit 3-4 pieces every year. its about 4 years old now and doing fine | Kieren Marsden - Hillbank, SA 11-Jan-2007
I have been making monstera jam for several years, I just freeze the ripe sections and let them build up until i get enough to make some jam, i add 2/3 cup of sugar per cup of pulp and the juice and zest of 1 lemon per kg of pulp, then make the jam. | Jeffrey K. Heriot. - Buderim, QLD 26-Feb-2007
We have 4 from the one original plant. They are fed with grey water and kept in well mulched dappled sunlight. We do nothing else with them and we are looking forward to the 3 dozen fruit we will be enjoying next year. Frost hasn't bothered it so far. | Fay & Graham Nilsen - Brisbane, QLD 03-Mar-2007
Twanger is a great name for a cheese plant i love mine he's the best oh yeah oh yeah | George - Cowes, I.O.W 28-Mar-2007
Near back fence and partly shaded. Fed with grey water and not much TLC. Been told to leave fruit till skin is black and the 'scales' fall off. Never tried it before. Looking forward to tasting it. | Beryl Bailey - Kallangur, QLD 01-Apr-2007
Southern side of the house in the damp. The one directly under the kitchen window fruits prolificly. One fruit even had seeds inside it. Also have one growing inder banana plants and fruiting well, gets sun so some scorched leaves. | B.kerr - Gympie, QLD 08-May-2007
Yea uhh its pretty much amazing. | Caitlin Dymphna - Miami, FL 02-Jul-2007
Our Monstera is huge. Broke out of the fernery many years ago and doesn't mind full sun anymore. One leaf is easily the size of me. Generally get about 20 or more fruit from it each year. | Fred Secula - Melbourne, VIC 25-Aug-2007
About the "prickles". They're tiny crystals of calcium oxalate (raphides). Also in kiwifruit (near the core) and just under the skin in pineapple. They're harmless, but you can feel them. | Shane Walker - Canada, NS 29-Aug-2007
Who said it was tropical. I live in Hobart and have one outside the front door. This year we will have 10 or so fruits. | Ross James - Taroona, TAS 17-Oct-2007
It is tropical, but you can grow it in other areas. After reading many others topics about the Monstera fruit, I have come to the conclusion that each Monstera plant grows in a pair of flowers each year. I have a Monstera plant and it also has 2 flowers. | Alen Brandenburg - Los Angeles, CA 11-Nov-2007
You would not believe the size of ours! Vines easily in the 20ft range, leaves 2.5 ft long...amazing. Going to try propagation by vines. I'd like to dig up the parent plant but not sure how deep roots go...any suggestions? | Lizabeth Jones - Australia, VIC 24-Nov-2007
THESE GIANTS LOVE FISH EMULSION AND COFFEE GROUNDS MIXED INTO THE SOIL FOR ROOT STIMULOUS | Wayne Zollinger - West Hills, CA 23-Dec-2007
My 20 year old plant has produced fruit for the first time this tear but it doesnt look like photos ive seen,doesnt have hexagon shapes on it,it just looks like a straight banana but not as smooth? | Grant Mundy - Hobart, TAS 06-Jan-2008
The fleshy part of the fruit is elegantly fruity, but the "prickly" calcium axalate crystals(?) are rough on the tongue, not comfortable. | Yun Chin Leong - Churchill 3842, VICTO 09-Mar-2008
I luv the fruit but can't stand the prickles. I wait till the fruit it ripe but I still manage to eat the pricles. What can I do? | Chris Best - Corindi, NSW 19-Apr-2008
Great with tomato soup | Heba Awad - Melbourne, VIC 08-Sep-2008
I dont think it would be appropriate to have with soup it has a tangy sort of taste, id say you would put it on a pavlova, cut it up in slices-avoid the prikles!! all the best let me know what you think | Aaron Davis - Sunbury, VIC 08-Sep-2008
8yr old , from air-rooted piece 1 metre long ,one end part-buried .1st time fruit.Some water in 40+summer heat...sub-zero winters; blood and bone last year.. | Greg Hedley - Chidlow, WA 12-Nov-2008
I completeley hacked mine to the ground. Less than a month later it was covered in leaves and fruit (ten or more). Frost certainly hasn't killed it. know if I mulch it into th | Jen B - Windsor, NSW 22-Nov-2008
Mine is growing in full sun in the backyard. It takes up half the yard. These things are hardy. | Jen B - Windsor, NSW 22-Nov-2008
I noticed one half eaten this a.m., must have been the birds! Anyway I ate some of it myself and left the rest on the bench to ripen further. But isn't this early? You say harvest between Feb and May -- surely it's not last season's? There are four more. | Nancy Patton - Mornington, VIC 30-Nov-2008
I just found 4 plants in my backyard, each with 2 fruits what should I do now? | Nathan Hockridge - Sydney, N.S.W 09-Jan-2009
My Question is.... When is the right time to eat it, any reason why the ants are all over it this year? | April - Nabiac, NSW 03-Feb-2009
The right time to eat is when the scales fall off. Don't pull them off as that is when the prickles occur. | Tony Poyner - Cairns, QLD 14-Mar-2009
To take a cutting, just chop off a growing stem with roots hanging off it. Plant it up against a tree or wall and mine have fruited the following year. | Tony Poyner - Cairns, QLD 14-Mar-2009
No tip need advice not growing what type of fertiliser do you suggest it is in shade & theres frost in winter is growing in mt druitt nsw | Julie Bartley - Mt Druitt, NSW 01-Apr-2009
How do i take a butting from my plant? | Lorraine Myers - Inverleigh 3321, VIC 01-Apr-2009
I live in one of the coldest parts of the country and have an indoor monstera producing two foot wide leaves and about to flower for the first time | Ken Nosich - Rock Springs , WY 11-Apr-2009
Make cuttings by stripping the leaves from the vine and make 2-3 inch sections with 1 or 2 nodes (where the leaves were attached) on each piece. Let the ends heal. Root by planting sections partially beneath the soil. | L. Thomas - Central, FL 12-Jun-2009
I just bought my first monstera, my mum had one when we lived in England,i was a little girl then. I had to have one i remember how beautiful it was, but don't remember ever seeing any fruit on it! I have only come to learn that it bare fruit Ha! | Clair Robertson - Ringwood East, VIC 27-Jun-2009
I just found one in my garden backfence its farly bushy don`t know how it got there but sounds mouth watering A.KA. im only ten | Ruby Rose Vial - Newcastle, N.S.W 31-Jul-2009
I'm excited I have 2 monstera's coming over the fence from my neighbor - it is covered in fruit. So I cut a 2 foot section off and stuck it in some dirt about 3 months ago. It has 4 fruit on it already!! | Sealady - Melbourne Beach, FL 02-Aug-2009
Eat when ripe by using a fork to get the pieces out, this leaves most of the black pieces/prickles behind. | Pauline Chant - Cooroy, QLD 04-Aug-2009
If you find seeds in your fruit, they are very easy to grow. Just place them on a piece of paper towel in a jar lid with a little water and they will shoot within a few days. Rinse them daily with clean water. | Pauline Chant - Cooroy, QLD 04-Aug-2009
Monsterio delicios fruit is poisonous if consumed too early before ripened take caution before eating | James Mckenzie - Melbourne, VIC 30-Sep-2009
Ive just had the fruit on my cheese plant mature after nearly a year. The plant itself is kept in my conservatory and I live in hertfordshire, England!! | Mrs P J Nightingale - Stevenage, HERTS 05-Nov-2009
Updated: 30th of June, 2008 at 12:48pm © Disclaimer/Privacy/Copyright