Re: ID for a friend
50% of identifying is narrowing down the likely candidates based on location and context, and 50% is looking at the plant. The fact that you have an unknown fruiting banana in South Carolina automatically narrows it down to an extremely small set of likely varieties, like less than 5. 95%+ of the time, in this scenario the plant would either be the hardy wild species Musa basjoo, or the edible cultivar 'Orinoco'.
Now, actually looking at your plant, I can see many classic standard traits of 'Orinoco', including the color and lifting behavior of the bracts, the orientation of the bunch, the number and spacing of the fruits, and coloration on the young fruits. Pair those highly distinguishing traits with the fact that you have an unknown banana in SC, and we can 100% you have 'Orinoco', which is the most common banana you'll find across the entire Southern US.
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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.
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