Could anyone tell me what kind of philodendron this is? My closest guess is a heartleaf philodendron. We got it as a cutting from Yvonne's mom who is now gone. We've had it for 21 years and it grows beautifully. But it is starting to die and roots are beginning to rot in the pot. We do not overwater it. We probably underwater it if anything. Do we need to cut the vine and re-root it in water? Or can we simply plant the aerial roots in dirt?

Does this plant make cataphylls? A little sheath around new leaves that soon turns brown?


They leave little brown bits along the stem that don't usually fall off until they are pulled off:


Are you able to add a pic of the growing tip of one of the stems? The back of a leaf?

OK, here are the pictures you requested. The way the stem of the leaves attach to the stem of the vine forms a sort of u shape and not completely round.

Growing tip:




Back side of leaf:




Where it attaches to the vine:

Thanks, John! If this is a Philodendron, I'm not familiar with it.

I suspect it's a Monstera because of the absence of cataphylls, roundish leaves with raised veins on the reverse, and the presence of genicula on the petioles, but that's getting into the realm of discussing plants I've never owned.

Good old Monstera deliciosa.
If it got more light and fertilizer it will make leaves with the characteristic splits.

Monstera? Wow! That would be surprising! I'm not trying to be disagreeable, but we've had that growing in our house for 21 years and it never looked like a Monstera plant! We got it after my wife's mother passed away. And it never looked like a Monstera plant in her house either. It gets a lot of morning light and I fertilize it occasionally.

We took it off the wall today and cut off the empty vines and are going to try to re-root the cuttings. Then we will replant it using Espoma potting soil. We'll see what happens then.

After having done a little research today I believe it's not actually a Philodendron, but a Pothos. I don't know if that would make any difference in ID-ing the particular plant I have.

Any other ideas?

Some Araceae need to climb to get splits in their leaves. This is not the case with many monstera, but just sayin'...

Epipremnum (???)