Monstera deliciosa black irritant fibres can be swept off with the application of a little citrus juice. Plants grown indoors in temperate regions occasionally produce flowers and fruit. Although consumed in tropical countries, it takes a long time (up to a year) for fruits to reach maturity. Before it is unconscious because very sour, even toxic in high doses. As a result, Monstera deliciosa has never been grown industrially for its fruit. This plant lives in the humid tropical forests, in the lowlands and middle mountains, in the extreme south of Mexico and also in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. The
Actinidia deliciosa Cultivation spread from China in the early 20th century when seeds were introduced to New Zealand by Isabel Fraser, the principal of Wanganui Girls' College, who had been visiting mission schools in China. The seeds were planted in 1906 by a Wanganui nurseryman, Alexander Allison, with the vines first fruiting in 1910. People who tasted the fruit thought it had a gooseberry flavour, so began to call it the Chinese gooseberry, but being from the genus "Actinidia", it is not related to the gooseberry family, Grossulariaceae. The familiar cultivar "Actinidia deliciosa" 'Hayward' was developed by Hayward Wright in Avondale, New