Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Daw
Gabe, could you please tell me how did you recognize that it wasn't a plantain? I was trying to look up some appearance differences of variouos bananas, but didn't acutally find any. Is it something specific, that you can see when you look at the plant? Or just a leaf structure or something like that?
I'm really curious. Thanks.  |
The official definition of a plantain is as follows:
"A particular type of cooking banana belonging to the AAB genome group
characterised by the yellow-orange colour of the compound tepal. The fruits are generally only palatable after cooking. The male axis is sometimes absent or degenerated. If present, it is clothed with persistent male bracts and flower relicts." From the Taxonomic Advisory Group of Bioversity International.
That being said, they are most easily spotted because they usually have few, but large fruits which are very angular and pointed at the ends. The male bud is usually either not present or degenerated. The plant in your photo clearly has lots of small fruits packed closely together and a well formed male bud.