10/24/2026
How does a plant have specimens collected for decades without anyone realizing it’s a new species?
When you think of Monstera, you probably think of the 2020 plant boom, variegated cultivars, Obliqua locales, or newly described species getting their spotlight. What you probably don’t think of is “overlooked.” Yet that’s what Monstera praetermissa was named for. Its name comes from the Latin praetermissus, meaning “overlooked” or “passed over,” reflecting how long aroid specialists neglected it (Gonçalves & Temponi, 2004).
Collected in Brazil from 1966 through 2004, this species was repeatedly misidentified as M. obliqua. When Eduardo Gonçalves and Lívia Temponi formally described it, they found it morphologically closest to M. obliqua, while also resembling Colombia’s M. xanthospatha (Gonçalves & Temponi, 2004; Pereira & Temponi, 2017).
Its changing appearance adds to the confusion. As it matures, its leaves develop large fenestrations resembling those of M. obliqua, sometimes even splitting the leaf margins (Andrade et al., 2013).
So how do botanists tell them apart? One key difference is their inflorescences. A mature M. obliqua can produce more than six per floral sympodium, while M. praetermissa typically produces just 1-4 (Gonçalves & Temponi, 2004).
With such similar foliage and subtle differences, telling them apart can take an expert eye! After decades hiding in plain sight among herbarium specimens, “overlooked” really is the perfect name.
