🚀 go-pugleaf

Graham Harden had written, concerning the 12th-13th c Hoysala 
temple carvings identified as maize by Johannessen and Parker 
(1989 _Economic Botany_) and now confirmed by Shakti M Gupta
(_Plants in Indian Temple Art_, 1996), 

>>I know they look like
>>maize to the Americo-centric eye, but to me the first impression I have is
>>of the fruit of the Monstera deliciosa..... aka fruit-salad-fruit. 

I had replied,
>The leaf of the Monstera deliciosa does appear in pre-Columbian India
>temple art, according to Gupta (pp. 108-9).  However, Monstera is 
>_also_ a  New World plant!  Out of 70 plants Gupta identifies in 
>temple art, 6 are New World!  I wasn't aware it had a noteworthy fruit,
>but I highly doubt that it matches these closer than maize.  I'll look for
>an illustration of it when I get over to the Botany library one of these
>days.   To Dr. Gupta's "Indo-centric" eye (she's an Indologist and an 
>ethnobotanist, affiliated with the University of Delhi), the sculptures look
>like maize, not monstera fruits, which she is surely familiar with.  

I still haven't found a photo of the monstera fruit, but I've turned
up some useful information about the monstera on the web.  
The Monstera deliciosa is also known as the split leaf 
philodendron, Philodendron pertusum, Mexican breadfruit,
and ceriman.  An award winning photo of its unusual flower
is at crfg.org/photocon/1997.html    See also
  www.rareplants.com/pict20.html
  www.ftg.org/imagelibrary/16image.html
  www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/modop/00000966.html
  www.mrs.umn.edu/academic/biology/database/html/
        Monstera_deliciosa.html

On more closely reading Gupta's entry on Monstera deliciosa
Leibm., she says it has a "cone-like edible fruit which has a mixed
flavour of pineapple and banana and considered a delicacy.  The 
fruit takes a long time to mature and ripens from base upwards."
(p. 108).  I hadn't noticed it earlier, but in her Plate 136, 
the standing Vishnu not only has monstera leaves draping
over his shoulders, but also,  "The figure on Vishnu's right is 
holding a fruit of Monstera on a plate in his left hand." (p. 109)
The fruit is shown on a very small scale, and the sculpture is
somewhat damaged, so it is not clear from this photo what 
the fruit really looks like, or whether it could be mistaken for
a maize ear.   

-- Hu McCulloch
   http://www.economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/outliers.html