User:Mousemia/User:Mousemia/User:Mousemia/Monstera gambensis

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Monstera gambensis[edit]
Monstera gambensis, one of the smallest species in the family Araceae, are native to the Costa Rica tropical forest of La Gamba, Golfito where the elevation is 100 m above sea level. They can be found on the floor of the humid forests with their stems climing up other trees and their roots above the soil, aerial roots, or the plant. as a whole growing on other trees. Monstera gambensis are typically not fenestrated until the adult stage, but they can still have at least two perforations on their blade. ,

Monstera gambensis Growth[edit]
The growth of Monstera gambensis start off as seedlings then grow into juvinile plants with appressed-climbing. The stems are dark green in color with internodes that are only 3-5 cm long, and their petioles are visable being either a dark or light green color. The leaf blades are not horizontal nor flat so that the monstera is able to grow on another plant. Adult Monstera gambensis are still appressed-climbers with dark green stems, similar lengths of internodes and same color of petioles as their juvinile stage, but in this more mature stage, their corky roots have black hairs and the leaf blades are bigger. This is the stage when adult Monstera gambensis have fenstrations. Monstera gambensis's roots acually go through photosynthesis, and they can coil on the ground or wrap around a tree. It's roots can also be scattered along the stems that are less compact, giving more room for more roots to grow. And depending on how far the roots are from the host, they will eaither be shorter or longer; the closer to the host, the shorter, and the farther away the longer the roots are.

Monstera gambensis as an Epiphyte[edit]
Monstera gambensis are hemi-epiphytes, which means that they spend a part of their lifecycle as an epiphyte. Epiphytes spend their lives growing on other trees close by, but being an epiphyte is not parasitic even though the monstera has the ability to grow on a host plant, the relationship between a host plant and epiphyte is commensalism, where the epiphyte is benefited and the host is neither benefited nor harmed. The shape of the Monstera gambensis leaves help it catch the rainwater that falls off of the host plant, and it also gets its neutrients from leaf-litter, which are just leaves on the forest floor that carry the nesessary resources and insulation for Monstera gambensis.