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View Full Version : Musa 'Bordelon' Question


varig8
06-20-2011, 02:53 AM
I have another 'Mystery' banana...................I thought I had lost this one a couple of years ago, then a few months ago I found this poor thing crammed behind some other plants, barely struggling along in a 3 gal. I put it in the ground about a month ago and now its flowering! It sure looks like a Bordelon from what I can gather from online research, EXCEPT it flowers at a height of about 3'. Ive had it flower in a 3 gal at 2' tall. The online info for Bordelon says 9'-14' tall. The leaves are red/maroon underneath, some 'blood spots' on top of green leaves, flower is deep purple,raceme & bananas are the same purple. Flower raceme seems sort of semi-erect, not pendant, more sideways, not totally erect like an Ornata. All the photos of the flowers Ive seen online arent nearly as dark purple as mine and the fruit in the photos are green.............anyone have any idea what this could be?

cherokee_greg
06-20-2011, 09:30 AM
I have another 'Mystery' banana...................I thought I had lost this one a couple of years ago, then a few months ago I found this poor thing crammed behind some other plants, barely struggling along in a 3 gal. I put it in the ground about a month ago and now its flowering! It sure looks like a Bordelon from what I can gather from online research, EXCEPT it flowers at a height of about 3'. Ive had it flower in a 3 gal at 2' tall. The online info for Bordelon says 9'-14' tall. The leaves are red/maroon underneath, some 'blood spots' on top of green leaves, flower is deep purple,raceme & bananas are the same purple. Flower raceme seems sort of semi-erect, not pendant, more sideways, not totally erect like an Ornata. All the photos of the flowers Ive seen online arent nearly as dark purple as mine and the fruit in the photos are green.............anyone have any idea what this could be?

sounds interesting. None of my Bordelons ever flowered at 3' yet hope you find out what it is.

saltydad
06-20-2011, 02:12 PM
I have another 'Mystery' banana...................I thought I had lost this one a couple of years ago, then a few months ago I found this poor thing crammed behind some other plants, barely struggling along in a 3 gal. I put it in the ground about a month ago and now its flowering! It sure looks like a Bordelon from what I can gather from online research, EXCEPT it flowers at a height of about 3'. Ive had it flower in a 3 gal at 2' tall. The online info for Bordelon says 9'-14' tall. The leaves are red/maroon underneath, some 'blood spots' on top of green leaves, flower is deep purple,raceme & bananas are the same purple. Flower raceme seems sort of semi-erect, not pendant, more sideways, not totally erect like an Ornata. All the photos of the flowers Ive seen online arent nearly as dark purple as mine and the fruit in the photos are green.............anyone have any idea what this could be?

:pics:

sandy0225
06-20-2011, 02:22 PM
I've had bordelons flower before at 5-6 feet if they were potted, but never that short. They do have a more maroon bloom. The flowers and bananas do droop over sideways on bordelon, they don't stay erect like ornata. They never develop fully into fruit. It looks like bananas are forming, there are female blooms, but they don't develop/grow bigger. They eventually drop off if you leave them long enough. Maybe you have some kind of a mutation if they flower at such a short stature though. It would be worth keeping the pups from it and seeing if they do the same. Then you'd really have something!

varig8
06-20-2011, 03:51 PM
Here are 2 links to photos of my original plant I got about 4 or 5 years ago, blooming in a 3 gal (14"). I moved my entire collection that year and just moved everything again about 2 years ago. I thought I didnt have it anymore until I recently found a small pup growing in that same pot! It has been in the ground about a month now and is producing its flower. The very tops of the leaves come up to my chest, the flower raceme is about 12" below that. So I think that it does sucker true, otherwise I think it should have grown a lot taller in the ground before it produced the flower. I checked and it doesnt have any suckers on it yet, but Im sure it will by the time it is done producing fruit. Any clues anyone? I would LOVE it if I have another rare one that no one can ID! :>)
Banana Gallery - dwarf erect ornamental (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2405&cat=500&ppuser=719)
Banana Gallery - dwarf erect ornamental (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2400&cat=500&ppuser=719)


















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cherokee_greg
06-20-2011, 11:08 PM
maybe you have a super dwarf bordelon :08::lurk:

sandy0225
06-21-2011, 06:13 AM
well the leaves definitely look like bordelon, but the bloom in the picture is more erect than any of my bordelons have been. They usually droop over sideways like other bananas just as soon as they come out of the center of the plant. Could it somehow be a bordelon/ornata cross? does it make any bananas or seeds?

TommyMacLuckie
06-24-2011, 09:31 AM
The blooming one looks more like a Sumtrana than a Bordelon. I've had Bordelon bloom way below 9 feet but I've never had a Sumtrana bloom for some reason. And they don't get very tall, at least where I live. Maybe 4 feet.

The tallest Bordelon I've ever seen were ones that were left alone, like in a parking lot of abandoned house/yard, in various parts of New Orleans. Those may have been around 10 feet or so trunk wise.

varig8
06-24-2011, 10:58 AM
Yes, it does make bananas, they are deep purple similar to Ornata Royale.
I'll have to wait to see if these are seeded or not. I dont think it is Sumatrana as Ive had those before and they've always grown taller than this one, even in pots! I looked online for any description or photos of the Sumatrana bloom & fruit for comparison and the only information I could find was this:
Musa Sumatrana
Bloom Color:
Orange
Red-Orange
Gold (Yellow-Orange)
Is this correct? I cant seem to remember from the ones I had grown years ago. About 15 yrs ago I got a few suckers of an unknown Musa from Marie Selby Gardens. This mat of bananas was growing behind the pond they have there. The largest grew approx 20' tall, and suckered profusely. The foliage very similar to the Rojos and Sumatrana. It flowered profusely with light violet flowers, semi pendulent, and rather small for the size of the trees. I left this growing in St Thomas when I left, and was never sure what that cultivar was either. I do remember it grew quite rapidly and I had a huge 20' clump with multiple trunks within a year. I wonder if Selby still grows this one?
The flower on this short dwarf one in question is rather long and thin compared to most banana flowers.

TommyMacLuckie
06-26-2011, 02:33 PM
Not sure why I said sumtrana instead of sumatrana...

Gabe15
06-27-2011, 08:41 AM
I think it is the same plant as in this thread: http://www.bananas.org/f12/anyone-want-make-stab-banana-9679.html

'Bordelon' does not have a red pubescent peduncle or red petioles, as yours has. The blooming height doesn't really matter as it is in a small container, so it is much shorter than it would be in the ground.

varig8
06-27-2011, 07:11 PM
Its in the ground blooming, not potted. The original I had about 5 yrs ago (pictured in my gallery) was potted and flowered at an even shorter height. How bizarre.......I know exactly where I got my original plant from, and that commercial nursery gets all of their musa from Agristarts TC.......and I dont see any such musa on their list available as TC liners. How in the world did they get this banana, if it is the same hybrid from China? What do you think Gabe? Could a hybrid plant with these 2 parents be TC'd successfully to make exact clones? It sure as sh*t looks EXACTLY the same! No name , huh? Hmmmmmm ;>)........Thanks for the info.

Gabe15
06-27-2011, 11:53 PM
Agri-starts has all kinds of plants that they have no idea what they are. They are also interested in getting new ornamental plants all the time, so it's possible they got this one or a similar one. There are also other similar hybrids out there, it could be one of those too. I've seen some similar ones at various botanic gardens.