Monday 5 January 2009

A Monster Baby

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We have had a Monsteria deliciosa, sometimes called The Fruit Salad plant, growing on our back verandah for a long time (As you can see from the size of the beast, below). And that's after we cut it back.

Anyway it has had young fruit on it before but this is the first time it has ripened.

Not surprisingly it tastes of fruit salad.





Its leaves have a distinctive hole pattern. I remember getting annoyed with Kodak once when their photography handbook had a photo of "the moth-eaten leaves of a Monsteria".

Grrr.
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24 comments:

  1. That looks like a neat plant. I assume it is a pretty mild climate beast?

    For New Year's we had Santa Claus melon. They grow during the summer, you pick them in fall, and then store in the root cellar until at least Christmas. Sort of like a Honey Dew melon on ice steroids.

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  2. Wow! That is a cool looking plant! Thanks for sharing...I've never seen one.

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  3. Can you be bothered eating it Lee?
    All those nasty hairs in the fruit leave me cold. The leaves are fabulous to look at!

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  4. LJ: it is great novelty value, the first child always is, but no, I wont be eating it other than trying the occasional piece. Too fuss to eat. Probably why they are not in the supermarkets. Nice taste though.

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  5. Steve harbors one here.
    In Indiana, of all places.

    And, no. We don't have a greenhouse, so it's a case of lugging (one does not carry a plant that big complete with fifty pounds of dirt, one lugs it) the plant to its West side position in the late Spring (lastest known snow in Indiana I believe was the first week in May) and letting it grow, picking off the bugs that think they favor it all Summer and then lugging (see above explaination, only add the term back breaking if it has raines prior to lugging it in) it back to its home in the music room.
    He gleefully reports that he had a friend in San Francisco once who had a Mosteria that filled the room, barely leaving places for people.

    Well, what I want to know is, where the dickens is MY fruit salad?

    HUH?
    WHERE!?

    (Still, it is a great looking plant)

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  6. strange, strange looking fruit. looks like it has scales (green).

    omg, i forgot to tell you! i saw a jar of vegemite in our local grocery store on our first day out from being home-bound due to snow ! i could not believe my eyes and almost bought a jar so i could taste it. then i remembered someone had mentioned it being salty tasting. i am not fond of salt and decided against it, but i was so excited to see it!

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  7. Has a bit of a phallic look to it...

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  8. I've never heard of it... looks a bit prehistoric. Cool, though... and fruit salad is always good. So is phallic ;)

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  9. Mmm Fruit Salad plant. Never even heard of it, but it does sound cool.

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  10. I've seen that...lots of them here. but usually i see people use it as decorative plant. never know that it has fruit. i guess if we plant it long enuf, it sure to bear some fruits. never know that the fruit could be eaten...
    but...but... may be i've mistaken it with some other plants...hmmm....

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  11. Ditto to what CaJoh said... wondering if you can juice it, if not I bet it will make good compost!

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  12. wow. that is very cool!! It tastes sweet like fruit salad?? hmmm...very bizarre, but cool :)

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  13. I am gonna google this one!
    Tastes like fruit salad ?!!
    Amazing....

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  14. Looks like Swiss cheese to me! Well, if Swiss cheese were green, that is!

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  15. I'm just wondering who it was that saw that fruit for the first time and thought, "hmmm... this looks disgusting, I think I'll eat it!" ;-)

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  16. Windblownbutterfly, wait until you get the hairs that stick in your tongue! it has a nice taste but like Lee said - not worth the trouble! LOL

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  17. WBB: That could apply to a lot of food. Oysters perhaps.

    LJ: I think I have a hairless model. (I wonder where they come from? Googled it: Mexico. Not far from Brazil!)

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  18. Lee, I'm a dog right? And dogs are known for eating seriously nasty stuff and not being at all picky but mate, that looks bloody disgusting. That is one downright ugly fruit. Mum would try it, 'cause she's almost doggy in the way she'll try everything at least once, but you couldn't pay me enough! Leaves are pretty though;)

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  19. Its a shame about the hairs, same with custard apples all of those big seeds; but the plant adds a fabulous tropical look to the garden especially when planted amongst cycads, palms and ferns. ♥

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  20. There are lots of em growing over here, but I have never ever seen one that bears fruits before.

    Hmm... maybe it's a different plant altogether.

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  21. Very popular in SA too this plant but never did I know or seen a fruit from it.

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  22. Well to me it looks a bit like a Corn Cob. The plant I have grown in the past indoors of course in the UK..but it was stolen..What a facinating fruit.

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  23. At first glance, I thought you had ripped open a snake!

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