Are You Taking the Real Plant Home? Everything About Super Rare Monstera Obliqua

Shopping rare plants is much easier, thanks to the available online options.

However, while shopping online, we often don’t get what we are looking for because some plants are so rare that people don’t even know their right names.

For instance, Monstera Obliqua, a plant that’s rare yet in demand due to its delicate lacy leaves, is being sold in the market but it is not true Obliqua. In fact, you don’t even find information regarding this plant, even on Wikipedia.

The difference in colors due to the different light spectrum.

Monstera Obliqua:

The controversy between the Real and fake Obliqua was always here but became more evident when DR. Tom Croat of Missouri botanical gardens stated in work (muggle plant, 2018) talked about Monstera Varieties.

Tom Croat stated that:

“While there are officially 48 Monstera species still, two of them are most confused with each other. Monstera Obliqua and Adansonii.”

He further added:

Where Monstera Adansonii and Monstera Friedrichsthalii are synonyms or same names of one plant, but Obliqua and Adansonii are not the same species.

Nevertheless, we have brought you an in-depth guide “Are you taking the real Monstera Obliqua home” to clear all the myths and questions you have in your mind.

Here you go:

Complete Guide on Real and Rare Monstera Obliqua:

So, what is the real Obliqua? How does it look like, and how to do its care, growing, and propagation? Read the lines ahead:

Identifying Monstera Obliqua For Appearance:

In appearance, Monstera Obliqua is a tiny plant that grows very few inches from the ground.

The look of Monstera Obliqua is highly variable. It is a very small plant growing only a few meters high, and you can describe it as a green climbing plant.

1. M. Obliqua Leaves:

It is mostly identified by its small leaves with holes in them perforated without any symmetry. However, some studies and experts say:

Another thing by which you can recognize the leaves is their thinness. If you feel the leaves leathery and delicate, you most probably have Adansonii plant.

As monstera Obliqua has more holes than leaves, sometimes leaves tear the leaf frame. Therefore, you don’t get an identifiable leaf shape for Obliquas.

2. M. Obliqua Stem:

Along with being one of the smallest varieties of Monstera, the Obliqua also is slimmest in the genus with the breadth of the stem as 2mm only when child plant.

3. M. Obliqua Runner:

Runner, also known as Stolons, are small little lifeless pieces of stem that detach and fell from the plant on the forest floor.

They start to grow horizontally, and when it reaches a tree, one new Obliqua starts to form.

If it doesn’t reach a tree until 20 meters, the growth stops.

4. M. Obliqua Flowering:

Yes, Monstera Obliqua does make flowers; however, there is no specific season. The flowering can start and happen in any month during the year. In the flowering season, several sequential inflorescences happen.

Other Monstera varieties produce only 2 spadices.

5. M. Obliqua Fruit:

Monstera Obliqua has unique fruit, starts forming via a green spathe, then turns bright yellow, and later, in the final stage, becomes deep orange.

Monstera Obliqua Propagation:

Obliqua, being a slow grower yet rare plant, nobody knows much about the propagation and how to grow it. However, we have gathered a few tips from experts, elucidated below:

M Obliqua Peru form can be propagated by using two ways:

1. Stolon or Runner
2. Cuttings

1. Monstera Obliqua Peru Propagation from Stolon:

Obliqua runners are produced from time to time that offers a helping hand for propagation. Runners are small little dead stems, grow in length, but do not produce leaves, flowers, or fruit.

The main question is how to propagate through stolon. So here you go with steps of growing M Obliqua the aroid unicorn:

1. Nubs that haven’t fallen yet root them in.
2. You will need to provide enough humidity so that the stolon can produce roots and leaves.
3. The best organic mud for propagation is sphagnum moss that you will put under each runner.
4. Once you see that nubs started to create roots, you can use more sphagnum moss and grow them further.

5. Once you see the roots have started erupting, it is time to move the Obliquas in the growing medium.
6. At this time, you will use coco coir for successful growth.

Precaution to take:

Obliquas from Monstera varieties require humidity to grow; therefore, try to provide them 90 to 99 percent humidity for faster and easier growth.

2. Monstera Obliqua Peru Propagation from cutting:

Another way of growing M. Obliqua is propagating it through the cutting of the plant section. For this, follow these steps:

1. Get your hands on the right tools for managing your garden,
2. Try to cut sections from the plant that start rooting,
3. To start rooting between sections, use sphagnum moss and take cuttings when air roots appear.

Now use all the steps above and precautions for the successful growth of your monstera plant.

Monstera Obliqua Care:

If you are an expert, M Obliqua is an easy-care plant for home or office. Half shadowing places make it brightly thrive, but direct sunlight should be avoided. Use hanging containers or baskets from where water can drain at bottoms, can grow Obliquas well. Soils should be moist, but not wet feet.

This is all about the Monstera Obliqua species from the 12 Monstera varieties.

Before ending this discussion, let’s discuss some of the Results findings that we got and gathered and would love to share with you about this Unicorn Aroid:

Where To Find Real Obliquas?

For this, check into the following details:

3. Habitation for Obliquas:

The best habitation of Obliquas is in the roots of the trees grown around the sea because it inhabits an ephemeral habitat.

It doesn’t grow too big, not even propagates its branches and leaves on the truck, hence grows in the dunks of the small trees as well.

It reaches maturity even on small trees as it is not a big climber. Its smallish size has the advantage that it can make use of a substrate that is not available to other plants.

It has the ability to take food, water, and other nutrients from dead plants’ debris that is still moist and takes moisture from rain as well.

4. Geographical Presence and Abundance:

You can find Monstera Obliqua in abundance on the amazon basin.

But this is not the only geographical location for this unicorn arcade, as you also find in various other places like Panama, southern America, Costa Rica, Peru, and Guianas, etc.

Despite being available at many places at one time, still, how this plant could be rare and unseen? We will mention the reasons and possibilities regarding this in the “Findings” section of the blog.

5. Monstera Obliqua Growth Cycle:

Monstera Obliqua is not a fast runner but a slow grower due to which many experts and plant collectors don’t observe it as a houseplant.

If you have Adansonii mistakenly bought as an Obliqua, you will see growth at a constant pace like new leaves popping out every minute. This is not the case with real and original Obliqua.

It takes a whole year or eight months that Obliqua grows 30 to 70 new leaves. However, on the below stem near to root, 3 to 5 leaves grow quite rapidly, around one leaf a month.

Do you know M. Obliqua is mostly confused with a Monstera Adansonii. However, if look closely, you will see that Obliqua and Adansonii are quite different than each other.

Real VS. Fake Monstera Obliqua

Monstera Adansonii has three forms in which it is available:

1. The Regular Form
2. The Round Form
3. The Narrow Form

In regular form, Adansonii is less like Obliqua and can be identified easily with small holes in it away from the leaf frame.

In round form, the holes on the leaves are more like round-shaped, larger, and appear without any specific symmetry.

On the other hand, the narrow form Adnasonii is more confused with Obliqua because it also has larger holes. The plant is tropical and, however, isn’t Obliqua.

The famous expert on Monstera, Dr. Thomas B Croat claimed:

The difference between Adansonii and Obliqua is subtle yet essential and visible occurs in leaves; Obliqua leaves are paper-thin and have more holes than leaf while Adansonii has more leaf than holes and feels subtle when touched.

We can also say that the difference in Adansonii and Obliuqa is that:

Questions and Findings:

Question: As the plant has so many places where it can be found in abundance, how is it possible that it is still rare?

Finding: M Obliqua is such a small plant that grows on tree trunks and green fossils of trees. There are chances that researchers couldn’t have seen it or paid attention to it when it was still there.

Question: Monstera Obliqua growth is so slow, how can we grow it at homes?

Finding: Well all this plant needs is humidity around 90 percent if you can provide that, the plant will show easy and healthy growth.

Question: How can it be best for Monstera Obliqua’s growth at home?

Finding: If you can provide light, humidity, temperature, and good required soil for growth, it can be grown at home.

Question: What if I have Adansonii than Obliqua, what should I do?

Finding: Well, then call your plant Adansonii than Obliqua. Just call it with right name until you find the real Obliqua.

Monroe Birdsey collected Monstera Obliqua in 1975 in Peru and verified by Dr. Michael Madison in 1977 in his work, Revision of Monstera. However, it is not called Monstera Peru; that’s another species.

It is one of the smallest species of the genus and is so rarely available, most probably just for research purposes. Moreover, even if it is, you will have to pay 3 to 4 digits price to buy it.

Bottom Line:

This is all about Monstera Obliqua and its growth and care. If you have any more queries, do comment below.

Plus, if you are love rare plants and want to grow them at home, don’t forget to check our blogs in gardening section, especially the Mini Monstera (Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma) blog.