The Biological Reason — Skototropism
The Swiss Cheese Plant (Monstera deliciosa) exhibits one of the most unusual navigation behaviours of any common houseplant — a phenomenon called skototropism. Unlike most plants that grow toward light (phototropism), young Monstera plants in their natural rainforest habitat grow away from light and toward darkness — specifically toward the dark silhouettes of large tree trunks.
The evolutionary logic is straightforward and brilliant. A juvenile Monstera growing on the rainforest floor needs to find a tree trunk to climb — climbing is the only way to reach the brighter light of the upper canopy where the plant can mature and thrive. In the dense, dappled light environment of a rainforest understory, tree trunks appear as the darkest, most solid objects in the visual landscape. By growing toward darkness rather than light, the young Monstera reliably navigates toward the nearest large vertical structure — exactly what it needs.
In your UAE apartment, walls are the darkest, most solid vertical surfaces in the room. Your Swiss Cheese Plant is doing precisely what millions of years of evolution designed it to do — seeking out the nearest vertical structure to climb. The wall is not confusing your plant. Your plant is correctly identifying the wall as the most promising climbing structure available.
What Happens When It Reaches the Wall
When a Swiss Cheese Plant reaches a wall, several things can happen — some desirable, some less so.
If the wall has some texture — rough plaster, exposed brick, or a textured finish common in many UAE apartment walls — the aerial roots the plant produces from its stem nodes will attempt to grip the surface. This can produce a spectacular living wall effect as the plant climbs upward, producing progressively larger and more fenestrated leaves as it ascends.
If the wall is smooth — painted white walls, the most common surface in Dubai and Abu Dhabi apartments — the aerial roots will find nothing to grip and the plant will simply press against the surface. Over time, this flat contact can cause moisture to accumulate between the leaves and the wall, potentially causing fungal issues on the leaf surfaces in contact with the cool, flat surface and leaving marks on the wall paintwork.
Should You Let It Grow Toward the Wall?
This depends entirely on your goals and your apartment situation.
If you want to encourage wall climbing: A rough or textured wall surface, or a purpose-installed moss panel mounted on the wall, gives the aerial roots something to grip and creates one of the most impressive tropical indoor displays possible. In UAE villas with feature walls or textured finishes, this natural behaviour can be channelled into a genuinely stunning design element. Mist the wall surface or moss panel regularly to encourage aerial root attachment.
If you want to prevent wall contact: Redirect the plant before it reaches the wall using one of the methods below. Prevention is significantly easier than redirecting a plant that has already firmly attached aerial roots to a wall surface — detaching roots tears them and stresses the plant.
How to Redirect a Wall-Growing Swiss Cheese Plant
Install a moss pole. This is the most effective and most aesthetically appropriate solution for UAE apartments. A vertical moss pole installed in the plant's pot gives the Swiss Cheese Plant exactly what it is biologically seeking — a tall, stable, grippable vertical structure. The plant will reorient its growth toward the pole within 1–2 leaf cycles, abandoning its interest in the wall entirely. Keep the moss pole moist by misting regularly — this encourages aerial roots to attach firmly. Pebbles from GrowHub's gravel and pebbles collection at the pole base help stabilise it while maintaining the polished display appearance.
Rotate the pot. Rotating the plant away from the wall — so the stem that was growing toward the wall is now pointing away from it — buys time and redirects initial growth. However, given the Monstera's determined skototropism, it will typically reorient toward the next darkest surface relatively quickly. Rotation works best as a temporary measure while you implement a more permanent solution like a moss pole.
Reposition to a central room location. Moving the plant away from walls entirely — to a central position on a table or plant stand — reduces the contrast between the wall darkness and surrounding brightness, making the wall a less dominant navigational target. This works best in rooms with good ambient light from multiple directions.
Provide a trellis or plant stake. A decorative trellis or bamboo stake positioned between the plant and the wall intercepts the growth and provides an alternative climbing surface before the wall is reached.
Using Skototropism to Your Advantage
Once you understand that your Swiss Cheese Plant is seeking vertical structures, you can use this behaviour deliberately rather than fighting it.
In a UAE apartment where you want to create a vertical green feature — along a corridor wall, behind a sofa, beside a doorway — allowing or encouraging the plant's natural wall-seeking behaviour produces exactly this result with minimal additional effort. Install a moss panel on the desired wall section, position the plant nearby, and allow nature to take its course.
The key is choosing the wall deliberately and preparing the surface appropriately — a plant allowed to climb a textured feature wall with proper aerial root support creates one of the most impressive and distinctive indoor plant displays available in UAE home design.
What This Behaviour Tells You About the Plant's Health
A Swiss Cheese Plant actively growing and reaching toward a wall is not struggling — it is thriving. Active directional growth, the production of new aerial roots, and vigorous reaching behaviour are all signs of a well-nourished, correctly watered, adequately lit plant with healthy root and stem systems.
A Swiss Cheese Plant that has stopped reaching and growing entirely — regardless of direction — is the plant that needs attention.
🌿 Browse GrowHub's full indoor plants collection — including Swiss Cheese Plants and other UAE-suited indoor plants delivered across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
🪨 Shop pebbles for moss pole bases and top dressing — stabilise your Swiss Cheese Plant's climbing support and complete your display beautifully.
