Monstera plants grow aerial roots as part of their natural climbing strategy in the wild, and the thick, cord-like projections that emerge from your houseplant’s stem nodes are doing the same thing indoors, even without a rainforest canopy to reach for. These roots serve multiple purposes: anchoring the plant to trees or other surfaces, absorbing moisture from the surrounding air, and eventually tapping into soil if they grow long enough to reach it. Understanding what they are and what they need can help you decide whether to guide them, trim them, or leave them alone.
Why Monstera Grows Roots in Mid-Air
Monstera belongs to the subfamily Monsteroideae within the aroid family (Araceae), a group made up mostly of hemiepiphytic or epiphytic species restricted to the tropics.1BioOne Complete. Systematics, Biogeography, and Morphological Character Evolution of the Hemiepiphytic Subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) A hemiepiphyte starts life in one of two ways: either as a seed germinating on the forest floor that climbs upward toward the canopy, or as a seed that lands high on a tree branch and sends roots downward to eventually reach the ground. Monstera deliciosa is the first type, sometimes called a secondary hemiepiphyte. Its seedlings sprout in soil, grow toward the nearest tree trunk, and then climb. Aerial roots are the tools that make this lifestyle possible.
In the wild, a mature Monstera can climb dozens of feet up a host tree. Its aerial roots emerge at stem nodes and press into bark crevices, gripping the trunk firmly enough to support the plant’s increasing weight. Some of these roots grow long enough to dangle freely and eventually penetrate the soil below, creating a secondary pipeline for water and nutrients. Others remain short and function purely as anchors. The plant effectively maintains two root systems at once: the original terrestrial roots near its base and the aerial roots along its climbing stem.
How Monstera Seedlings Find a Tree to Climb
Before aerial roots even come into play, a young Monstera has to locate something worth climbing. Research on a closely related species, Monstera gigantea, demonstrated a behavior called skototropism: the seedlings grow toward the darkest part of their visual horizon rather than toward the brightest. In a dense tropical forest, the darkest silhouette on the horizon is usually a tree trunk. Seedlings were shown to aim their growth toward the shadow cast by the nearest tree or vertical support, and this attraction increased with the diameter of the tree while decreasing with distance from it.2IOP Publishing. Taking inspiration from climbing plants: methodologies and benchmarks—a review Once the seedling reaches a trunk, its aerial roots take over, anchoring the plant and beginning the upward climb. This shade-seeking behavior is essentially the opposite of what most plants do, and it makes evolutionary sense: for a climbing plant, moving toward a large dark object means moving toward a support structure.
What Aerial Roots Actually Do
Aerial roots serve at least three distinct roles, and the balance among them shifts depending on the root’s position and the environment around it.
- Anchoring: Short, stiff aerial roots that press against a support surface act like biological clamps. They grip bark, moss poles, or any textured vertical surface, holding the stem in place as it climbs.
- Water and nutrient uptake: Longer aerial roots that reach the ground function much like ordinary soil roots, absorbing water and dissolved minerals. Even roots that never reach soil can absorb moisture from humid air or rain running down a tree trunk.
- Structural support: As Monstera matures and its leaves grow large and heavy, aerial roots help distribute the mechanical load. Without them, the stem would sag or snap under its own weight.
The relative importance of these roles changes as the plant ages. A young Monstera climbing its first meter of trunk relies heavily on anchoring roots. A larger specimen with leaves the size of dinner platters depends more on structural support and the nutrient pipeline provided by roots that have reached the ground.
How Fast Aerial Roots Grow
Monstera deliciosa produces some of the fastest-growing aerial roots among aroids. Measured growth rates reached up to about 9.6 millimeters per day, significantly faster than smaller aroid relatives like Anthurium species, which managed only around 0.5 millimeters per day.3Frontiers in Plant Science. Cellular Growth in Aerial Roots Differs From That in Typical Substrate Roots The zone behind the root tip where active elongation happens also varies with root thickness: in Monstera, it ranged from about 3 centimeters in the thinnest roots to 10 centimeters or more in the thickest ones.4Frontiers in Plant Science. Cellular Growth in Aerial Roots Differs From That in Typical Substrate Roots Thicker roots grow faster in absolute terms because they have a longer stretch of tissue actively pushing the tip forward.
For anyone who has watched an aerial root seemingly appear out of nowhere on their indoor Monstera, this speed makes sense. A healthy plant in warm, humid conditions can push out a root nub that becomes a dangling cord within a couple of weeks. In drier indoor air, growth tends to be slower and the roots often develop a papery brown outer layer as they dry out rather than continuing to elongate.
The Waxy Coating That Protects Them
Aerial roots face a challenge that underground roots do not: they hang in open air, exposed to rapid moisture loss. To cope, Monstera deliciosa aerial roots develop a suberized outer layer, essentially a corky barrier impregnated with wax. Research comparing suberized tissues across several plant species found that the aerial roots of M. deliciosa formed a transpiration barrier with permeance values in the range of roughly 7 × 10⁻¹⁰ to 4 × 10⁻⁹ meters per second, comparable to the upper range of leaf cuticles.5PubMed Central. Comparing anatomy, chemical composition, and water permeability of suberized organs in five plant species: wax makes the difference When researchers stripped the wax from this outer layer, water loss increased by roughly tenfold, confirming that the wax component is what makes the barrier effective.6PubMed Central. Comparing anatomy, chemical composition, and water permeability of suberized organs in five plant species: wax makes the difference
This is why aerial roots on an indoor Monstera often look dry and brown on the outside. That papery skin is not dead tissue in the way a dried leaf is dead; it is a functional waterproofing layer. Beneath it, the root tissue remains alive and capable of absorbing moisture if conditions are right. If you mist the roots or wrap them in damp sphagnum moss, you are essentially bypassing the outer barrier at the root tip, where the coating is thinner and absorption can occur more easily.
Should You Cut Aerial Roots Off
This is one of the most common questions Monstera owners ask, and the answer depends entirely on your goals for the plant. Trimming aerial roots will not kill the plant or cause any immediate health crisis. Monstera is resilient, and removing a few aerial roots is more like pruning a branch than amputating a limb. The plant will typically produce new ones from the same or nearby nodes.
That said, there are reasons to think twice before reaching for the scissors. Each aerial root is a potential supply line. If you are growing your Monstera up a moss pole or other support and want it to develop larger leaves and a sturdier structure, those roots are actively helping when they grip the pole and absorb moisture from it. Removing them forces the plant to rely solely on its pot-bound root system, which can be a limiting factor for a large specimen in a relatively small container. If the plant is otherwise healthy and well-watered, trimming purely cosmetic or wayward roots is fine, but routinely cutting every aerial root will slow the plant’s growth over time.
If the roots are bothering you aesthetically, you can tuck them back into the pot, guide them toward a support structure, or trim just the excessively long portions rather than cutting them flush at the stem.
Training Aerial Roots Onto a Support
A moss pole, coir pole, or plank of natural wood gives aerial roots something to grip. The closer the root’s environment mimics the damp bark of a tropical tree, the more the roots will respond by clinging and branching. A few practical tips can make a real difference.
Keeping the support surface damp encourages roots to attach. If you are using a sphagnum moss pole, misting or watering it regularly means the roots encounter moisture as they grow against it, which signals them to keep elongating and branching rather than drying out and going dormant. Some growers wrap aerial roots loosely against the pole with soft ties until the roots grab on by themselves. Forcing a stiff, mature aerial root to bend sharply against a pole risks snapping it, so it is better to guide young, flexible roots while they are still green at the tip.
The payoff for successful attachment is real. A Monstera climbing a well-maintained moss pole typically produces larger leaves with more fenestrations (the characteristic splits and holes) than one left to sprawl horizontally without support. In the wild, the plant produces bigger, more fenestrated leaves as it climbs higher into the canopy, and recreating even a modest version of that vertical growth indoors can mimic that response.
Aerial Roots and Propagation
A common misconception is that you can cut off an aerial root, stick it in water or soil, and grow a new plant. An aerial root by itself, without a node (the slightly raised bump on the stem where leaves and roots emerge), will not produce a new plant. It lacks the meristematic tissue needed to generate stems and leaves. It will just sit in water until it eventually rots.
Where aerial roots become useful for propagation is when you take a stem cutting that includes a node and its attached aerial root. The presence of an existing aerial root gives the cutting a head start because it already has tissue capable of absorbing water. Many growers specifically choose stem sections with a visible aerial root for propagation because these cuttings tend to establish themselves faster in water or moist growing medium. The aerial root may or may not survive the transition — sometimes it rots and a new root grows from the node to replace it — but it often bridges the gap, keeping the cutting hydrated during the critical first weeks.
The ideal propagation cutting from a Monstera includes at least one node, one leaf (to photosynthesize and drive growth), and one aerial root or root nub. Cutting below the node gives the new root system room to develop, and the aerial root provides an interim water source.
When Excessive Aerial Roots Signal Something
A healthy Monstera will always produce aerial roots; it is genetically programmed to do so. But if your plant suddenly produces an unusual number of aerial roots, or if the roots seem to be reaching aggressively in all directions, it may be responding to environmental stress. The two most common triggers are underwatering and low humidity.
When a Monstera is not getting enough water through its soil roots, it may compensate by throwing out more aerial roots in search of alternative moisture sources. Similarly, in very dry indoor air (common in heated or air-conditioned homes), the plant may produce more aerial roots as an adaptive response, though in dry air these roots tend to brown and desiccate before they can do much good. Increasing watering frequency or raising humidity with a tray of pebbles, a humidifier, or grouping plants together often reduces the frenzy of new aerial root production.
On the other hand, a Monstera that produces very few aerial roots is not necessarily unhappy. If the plant is getting all the water and nutrients it needs through its pot-bound root system and is not trying to climb, it may simply invest its energy elsewhere. Aerial root production tends to ramp up when the plant grows large enough to need structural support or when it senses a vertical surface nearby to climb.
Aerial Roots Versus Soil Roots on the Same Plant
Though they emerge from the same species and even from the same stem, aerial roots and soil roots differ in structure. Research comparing root growth in aroids found that aerial roots grow differently at the cellular level from roots that develop underground. The elongation zone, where cells stretch and push the root tip forward, is substantially longer in aerial roots.7Frontiers in Plant Science. Cellular Growth in Aerial Roots Differs From That in Typical Substrate Roots This makes sense functionally: an aerial root dangling in open space needs to cover more distance before it reaches a surface to grip or soil to penetrate, so a longer growth zone lets it extend faster.
The outer layers differ too. Soil roots are surrounded by their growing medium, so they do not need the heavy wax barrier that aerial roots develop. When an aerial root does reach the soil and begins growing into it, the root tip transitions to behaving more like a soil root, branching and developing fine root hairs to absorb water and dissolved minerals. This dual capability is part of what makes Monstera so adaptable. A single aerial root can function as an air-exposed anchor for months and then shift to soil-root behavior once it contacts the ground.
Aerial Roots in Dry Climates and Modern Homes
Indoor environments are dramatically less humid than a tropical forest understory. Relative humidity in a typical home hovers around 30 to 50 percent, compared to 70 to 90 percent or more in the habitats where Monstera evolved. This difference explains why aerial roots on houseplants often look withered and brown compared to the plump, green roots seen on specimens growing outdoors in tropical gardens.
The wax barrier described earlier helps, but it is optimized for a rainforest where brief dry spells alternate with heavy rain. In a continuously dry living room, even a well-protected aerial root will lose moisture over time. Some growers create a microclimate around their Monstera by placing the pot on a humidity tray, running a humidifier nearby, or keeping the plant in a bathroom where showers raise the ambient moisture. Others wrap aerial roots in damp sphagnum moss held in place with plastic wrap or mesh, essentially creating a miniature humid pocket around each root. These approaches can keep roots active and green rather than dry and dormant, which supports the plant’s overall health and growth rate.
Whether these extra steps are worth the effort depends on your ambitions for the plant. A Monstera will survive perfectly well in normal indoor conditions with dry, brown aerial roots. But if you are aiming for the largest possible leaves and robust climbing growth, keeping those roots functional gives the plant resources it cannot get from the pot alone.