View Full Version : Musa ingens in West Papua
harveyc
08-31-2015, 08:30 PM
I saw this posted on Facebook and had to sure. Dang impressive!
Photo reportedly taken during guided tour earlier this month: "trunks of the gargantuan Musa ingens, world's largest banana. Arfak Mountains, West Papua"
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JQmzGeohAKo/VeT-Moyc9VI/AAAAAAAAhBU/Vus5aabsoWc/w616-h821-no/MusaIngens.jpg
crazy banana
08-31-2015, 10:04 PM
Wow. That looks insane.
Mark Dragt
08-31-2015, 11:52 PM
You would have to be creative to overwinter one of those in my zone 8. Amazing plant. What does the fruit look like? Flower, leaves?
harveyc
09-01-2015, 09:03 AM
Don't really know, I'm assuming it does not produce edible fruit.
blownz281
09-01-2015, 04:20 PM
Dude I want one!!!
luisport
09-01-2015, 04:26 PM
Hardy Tropical Plants: Musa ingens (http://www.hardytropicalplants.com/2012/07/musa-ingens.html)
luisport
09-01-2015, 04:43 PM
Hardy Tropical Plants: Musa ingens (http://www.hardytropicalplants.com/2012/07/musa-ingens.html)
Description:
The pseudo-stem can be 10-15 m high with a circumference at the base of the plant of 2 m.
The leaf sheath is waxy at the bottom and reddish tinted at the top.
The petioles are up to 60 cm long. The leaves are up to 5 m long and 1 m wide.
The inflorescence is enormous and hangs from a huge, smooth peduncle of 10 cm in diameter. It wears about 20 basal hands, each with 16-25 hermaphrodite flowers.
The banana bunch is big, very compact and weighs about 60 kg. The ripe bananas are about 18 cm long and 3-4 cm wide. The fruit is inedible. The seeds are smooth with an angular outline, very variable in shape, dark brown or black, 4-10 mm in diameter with a 2 mm deep hilum hole.
Produces few suckers.
sirmoebly
09-01-2015, 04:51 PM
I am not a expert but is that photo real.
Something doesn't look right.
siege2050
09-01-2015, 06:12 PM
I think I can get it under the house for winter lol
blownz281
09-01-2015, 06:41 PM
Haha.
scottu
09-01-2015, 07:32 PM
sorry but i need more than those pics to fall for that, please prove me wrong, and then tell me it's cold hardy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
robguz24
09-01-2015, 10:05 PM
Anyone try getting this to fruit in a container?
Kegas76
09-02-2015, 08:54 AM
Anyone try getting this to fruit in a container?
Like an empty swimming pool?:2730:
siege2050
09-02-2015, 03:33 PM
I would be scared to grow those anywhere even close to a house in a warmer climate lol, Timberrrrrrr.
Yuri Barros
09-02-2015, 06:12 PM
OH............MY......................GOD...............
This is the best picture of Bananas I saw in my life.......................
Romul
09-06-2015, 03:28 PM
It looks like Photoshop. In describing Musa ingens it is at the base of the trunk circumference of 2 meters. The circumference is equal to 2 × π × radius. 200:2:3.14 = 31.85 cm. Thus the diameter of the pseudo stem should be about 60 cm. In the photo right is a banana stem diameter of about 1.5 m. Compared with the growth of girls. Accordingly, the circumference is about 4.5 m. I have seen in India, bananas, whose pseudo-stem was 30-40 cm in diameter. The height of these bananas was 10-12 m. What should be the height of the banana stem with a diameter of 1.5 m?
harveyc
09-06-2015, 08:55 PM
Markku has written me and he's familiar with the photographer. He is an expert in these species bananas and I am under the impression he found it credible.
druss
09-07-2015, 06:18 PM
Jungle Forums • View topic - Got: Holy Grail Seeds, Musa ingens (http://www.tropicsphere.com/main/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3347)
Heres a thread gabe15 started a decade ago, there are some good pics, wonder how his went.
harveyc
09-07-2015, 06:36 PM
I'm guessing the scale isn't entirely clear in this photo with the composition done in a manner to make the plants even more impressive. I imagine the women are standing much closer to the plant behind them than the one in front of them. The photographer specializes in exotic wildlife photography and studied in California but not based in Asia.
Gabe15
11-19-2015, 04:11 PM
There could be some perspective tricks going on, but I agree in that I don't think there is any reason to doubt the photo is real, M. ingens really is a massive plant and I've seen many other photos which also show similar size reference to people nearby. I would love to go see them one day.
I never could get any to germinate, even in vitro, and as it turns out there is actually an endophytic fungi of some sort which lives inside the seeds, making it seemingly almost impossible to germinate in vitro (at least in my experience, as well as that of a veteran tissue culture expert who also tried to germinate them in the 80's following the PNG Musa collection mission by then INIBAP. He also mentioned that the plants were full of endophytes making tissue culture of the meristems very difficult, and ultimately they all failed). I wouldn't doubt the endophyte has some role in it's germination in nature.
druss
11-19-2015, 04:48 PM
Nature is awesome. I know it co evolved with m ingens, but i wonder what would happen if you inoculated some other musa species with the fungi?
Mark Dragt
11-19-2015, 11:14 PM
Does anybody have a Musa Ingens pup they would trade for a Truly Tiny pup? I have a good spot picked out in my yard for one.
:nanadrink:
siege2050
11-20-2015, 09:04 AM
The fungus symbiosis is common with a lot of plants. There are wild terrestrial Orchids in my back yard that have little, or no chlorophyll and have to be infected by fungus as a seed to germinate and survive. They only send up above ground growth to flower, being underground the rest of the time.
Paulzie32
01-26-2016, 10:45 AM
Very Cool! I had been searching Google for BAnana Info and found the same picture from this website - It also shows someone eating a VERY Large banana that seems to be associated with that plant - Wawww 1 Pohon Pisang Bisa Berbobot 30kg-60kg Dan Tinggi Pohonnya Bisa Mencapai 20 Meter. - RameBanget (http://www.ramebanget.com/read/hiburan/wawww-1-pohon-pisang-bisa-berbobot-30kg-60kg-dan-tinggi-pohonnya-bisa-mencapai-20-meter)
There's even photos of someone climbing one, so Gabe15, there's no perspective tricks :-) They are HUGE at the base.
It's not in English, but if you use Chrome, just right click and Translate. There's also a Youtube Video at the bottom, but it's just a collection of images, including the one posted by the Harveyc
Kegas76
01-26-2016, 01:00 PM
I still cannot be sure that these aren't regular bananas being eaten by surviving Homo floresiensis.:p
Grannycore
02-21-2016, 09:53 PM
I'm guessing the scale isn't entirely clear in this photo with the composition done in a manner to make the plants even more impressive. I imagine the women are standing much closer to the plant behind them than the one in front of them. The photographer specializes in exotic wildlife photography and studied in California but not based in Asia.
The person is standing reaaaally close the the plant on the right, and the people are standing further back down a small gully. So the scale of the left plant to people is accurate but the right one appears larger due to perspective. I kept looking at this like a magic eyes, figuring it out was intriguing.
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