An Auckland botanist has walked away with almost $5000 after her monstera sparked a bidding war on Trade Me.

As the Instagram house plant craze has soared, the monstera has stayed firmly at the front of the pack, its holey leaves beloved of influencers and trendy cold brew cafes everywhere.

According to the seller, this particular Swiss cheese plant – or monstera deliciosa albo variegata, to give it its full title – is a "great investment plant".

SUPPLIED The "investment plant" sparked a bidding war that ended in a $4930 sale.

For the price of a car or a round-the-world flight, you'd hope so.

Seller jessixa said she expected the plant to go for around $2000 and never expected the auction to climb so high.

The plant was listed for a week, and attracted 182 bids in total, but the bidding war only heated up as the end of the auction loomed.

"When I put my phone down it was at $1600 – I came back 45 minutes later and couldn't believe it," she said.

In the last five minutes, the price climbed $420 as Trade Me users new_birdlander and thunnus battled it out for the coveted plant.

New_birdlander took home the prize when the bidding closed at 7.30pm on Tuesday with a final bid of $4930.

The seller said it was the highest price she'd seen a monstera go for, but pointed out it was also the largest and most mature plant she'd seen available on TradeMe.

She said she'd "easily" spend $5000 on a monstera – "double that".

Selling plants was a hobby rather than a source of income, she said, and all the money she made went back on buying plants. This $5000 windfall would be no different, she said.

123RF A standard monstera will set you back between $20-$60.

Trade Me spokeswoman Millie Silvester confirmed it was the highest price a monstera plant had fetched.

She said there were currently 230 listings for monstera plants on the site including a variegated monstera with a starting price of $2000.

Bunnings national greenlife buyer Andrew Grant said a standard monstera plant sold for $20-$60, depending on the size.

"The difference in the variegated variety is that it is very rare and hard to propagate," he said.

The popularity of indoor plants was largely driven by social media and people having smaller gardens, he said.

On TradeMe, Jessica penned what she described as a "Lord of the Rings length description" outlining the plant's best features.

The plant was a metre tall and growing quickly, she wrote.

"No need to ask for pics of the mother plant, this IS the mother plant! Have not seen such a mature, rooted one on offer before."

It was throwing out a new leaf every couple of weeks and had three nodes with the potential to detach three new plants by winter, she said.

She speculated this was what could have made the plant such a hot-ticket item, as the seller would be able to get three more plants they could potentially sell to recoup some of their costs.