Monstera Dubia
Monstera dubia is one of the smaller, lesser known monstera varieties, but it’s very beautiful and makes a great addition to any monstera lover’s houseplant collection. It is an easy to grow and rare climbing Aroid well-known for their bright green vines. It is known for the dramatic transformation its foliage makes as it climbs from seed stage on the forest floor, to shingling closely up a host tree trunk or other surface, until mature leaves with fenestrations similar to Monstera deliciosa appear.
One of the most fascinating things about monstera dubia is that this plant undergoes an incredible transformation when it reaches maturity and is exposed to bright sunlight. In the wild, this occurs when a vine has climbed all the way up a tree and reaches the sunlight above the canopy.
Like all monsteras, monstera dubia likes to climb. You can provide a small moss pole or trellis as you would for other varieties, or stake a flat board in the pot. As it climbs, the monstera dubia will adhere to the surface and lay flat like shingles!
You can recognize monstera dubia by the small, heart-shaped leaves, speckled with both light and dark green. Since juvenile plants lack the iconic monstera slits and holes, you may not even recognize it as a monstera at first! But the gorgeous light and dark green patterned leaves make this a beautiful plant in its own right, even without the fenestration. Monstera dubia is sometimes called the “shingle plant” because its leaves lie so flat against the trees it climbs in the wild, creating the appearance of shingles!
These small, heart-shaped, variegated leaves turn deep green and form massive fenestrations that take up most of the area of the leaf! It doesn’t even look like the same plant anymore. However, this takes years to occur and is rarely seen in indoor plants, because they are rarely allowed to grow that large and receive enough sunlight for this metamorphosis to happen.
It is easy to care for so long as it has moist, warm conditions and does appreciate light and high humidity. Monstera dubia is a species of plant in the genus Monstera native to Central and South America.
Place the Monstera in a semi shady or light spot, in filtered sunlight. Make sure the potting soil is always mildly moist, but not wet. It’s best to water the plant regularly, and to give small amount of water each time, just enough to moisten the potting soil. We also recommend regularly misting the leaves to maintain a high humidity.
If you’ve cared for any variety of monstera before such as monstera deliciosa, monstera adansonii etc., monstera dubia won’t be an issue for you.
