Hi Guys,
I've been visiting Taiwan for 23 years, and I obviously speak Chinese. I know all the wild bananas very well.
I just thought I might mention that I have two upcoming tours to Taiwan in 2019 for small groups (6 people). Both tours are titled "Birds and Botany", and I've built the itinerary around where the birds are to be seen, but the plants are to be seen in these locations too. If everyone in a group are only interested in bananas then that is what it will be. Not birds.
As it is, only the expedition visits all the bananas, as the tour bypasses
Musa itinerans var. kavalanensis. But if you prefer to be on the tour and need to see this species then you could arrive a couple of days earlier and I could run a pre-tour to go see it. The tour is staying each night in comfortable hotels. The expedition includes 5 nights sleeping in hammocks in wilderness locations, which might not be everyone's preference.
The species we will see in the wild include:
Musa itinerans var. kavalanensis
Musa itinerans var. formosana at varying elevations.
Musa itinerans var. chinensis
Musa itinerans var. chiumei
Musa itinerans "Insularimontana" the wild banana on Lanyu island that has been known as
M. insularimontana since 1913.
Musa textilis var. tashiroi there are only two individual plants of this on Lanyu island.
And the last species is
Musa balbisiana which is a larger plant than the Japanese
M. balbisiana var. liukiuensis
There will be many other plants that may interest some people including 6 native palms of which the endemic
Pinanga tashiroi is one, and over 600 species of fern, and many many gingers and bamboos.
I'll just mention there is another tour not listed, which is a group of Australians only looking for ferns on their tour, they may have a space available.
The website:
https://www.nature-expeditions.co.uk/ Look under "Tours" in the menu. Thank you for your time!
Cheers,
Phil