Monster plant outgrows glasshouse

The Monstera deliciosa, or Swiss cheese plant, has smashed its way through greenhouse windows to reach maturity and produce fruit at Paignton Zoo.

A zoo spokesman said despite its common name, the fruit does not taste of Swiss cheese, but a cross between a banana and a pineapple.

The plant is native to central America and is also known as a fruit salad plant or Mexican breadfruit.

Curator of plants, Ian Turner, said very few people who owned Swiss cheese plants would have tasted the fruit.

"This plant grew and grew, broke through from one greenhouse to the other, smashing panes of glass in the process, and now arches over our potting table"
Ian Turner, curator of plants

"If you give them the right conditions they will flower and fruit - but it's the right conditions that are the difficult bit," he said.

"Your average living-room specimen is unlikely to fruit - most remain as perpetual juveniles.

"This is a stock plant which grew and grew, broke through from one greenhouse to the other, smashing panes of glass in the process, and now arches over our potting table.

"There are more fruits still to ripen."

The fruiting plant is housed in a greenhouse not open to the public.

The plant is a member of the Arum family and is popular in the UK because it can withstand the wide range of conditions encountered in the home.

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