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View Full Version : Anyone care to guess on this house plant?


Hamakua
02-06-2016, 04:27 PM
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=59453&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=59453)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=59452&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=59452)

Your first guess might be close. That is pure sugar on the stem BTW

jjjankovsky
02-06-2016, 05:19 PM
Some kind of heliconia?

Hamakua
02-06-2016, 05:55 PM
It's a banana, just one not seen very often

Kat2
02-06-2016, 05:57 PM
Knowing your location would help in the guessing game I suspect.

chong
02-06-2016, 06:27 PM
My guess is it's a banana variety, not Heliconia. I don't know if you have Whiteflies in your house, but they feed on the banana sap and leave a sugary residue in their wake. You might want to wash out the sugary residue from the petioles. They are food for sooty mold fungi. They also attract ants who feed on them. Sooty mold fungi reduces fruit quality as well as lessen photosynthesis. I have seen honey-like sugary dew clumps on a lot of my orchid leaves, and a few on banana, when they were in ideal conditions before, though I've never seen them on banana petioles.

Chong

Hamakua
02-06-2016, 07:48 PM
Location updated.
The leaf stalk emerges with sugar crystals. Very sweet. There are no bugs that I can see anywhere.

Kat2
02-06-2016, 08:14 PM
Thanks for updating your profile. I pretty much knew that was a Musa (okay, I've gotten overly excited spotting birds of paradise growing on obviously empty, abandoned land or sitting in the yard of a garden center when driving by at a fast rate) but haven't any idea what you have growing there. Do you know (think you know) or is this a total mystery?

Tytaylor77
02-06-2016, 11:31 PM
Ornata? Way the leafs look remind me of Ornata. My guess would be Cavendish? I'm no expert.

a.hulva@coxinet.net
02-07-2016, 12:16 AM
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=59453&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=59453)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=59452&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=59452)

Your first guess might be close. That is pure sugar on the stem BTW

Mealy bugs?

Hamakua
02-07-2016, 01:18 AM
Not bugs, or bug poop. Just very surgary sap that has crystalized.

chong
02-07-2016, 01:58 AM
Not poop, just saliva residue from bug consumption of the sap.

siege2050
02-07-2016, 03:29 AM
Banana, maybe Ornata, or something similar. Not a Heliconia. The white powder might be water that has run out of the leaves and deposited some sugar? I would not lick it until I was sure it was not bug poop, some bugs do poop sugar lol.

siege2050
02-07-2016, 03:41 AM
Wild guess, Musa Formosana.

a.hulva@coxinet.net
02-07-2016, 12:24 PM
Not poop, just saliva residue from bug consumption of the sap.

I have the same issue with a Siam Ruby. The Mealy bugs suck the juice out and convert it to a sugar. They did a big number on the plant. I can't tell for sure without a close up. I sprayed with Bayer 3 in 1 insecticide. Can't hurt. I'll try to post a picture.

a.hulva@coxinet.net
02-07-2016, 01:41 PM
[QUOTE=a.hulva@coxinet.net;268515]Mealy bug. Pic doesn't show residue.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1703/24759722632_66b6d3b4e3_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/DHW3Vw)IMG_3048 (https://flic.kr/p/DHW3Vw) by Alan Hulva (https://www.flickr.com/photos/134947594@N08/), on Flickr[/QUOT


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1705/24784966491_491d73d62c_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/DLar3t)IMG_2991 (https://flic.kr/p/DLar3t) by Alan Hulva (https://www.flickr.com/photos/134947594@N08/), on Flickr

Hamakua
02-07-2016, 02:37 PM
Not bugs IMO. If you open up the stem picture in the photo gallery you can see a close up. Look down at the bottom. You can see the sap leaking out and sugar crystals forming.

Hamakua
02-07-2016, 02:47 PM
Some hints:
Bright yellow-green leaves, large chestnut blotching on the stem. In the AA group

JP
02-07-2016, 03:15 PM
Sucrier?

Hamakua
02-07-2016, 04:35 PM
Sucrier?

Very close, but no cigar yet. This plant will differ from Sucier in only one way.

JP
02-07-2016, 06:14 PM
It was my best guess... I'll try to find the time to ID it. How will it differ?

Hamakua
02-17-2016, 09:38 PM
Just to follow up. It is Mai'a Hapai. The pregnant banana.

venturabananas
02-18-2016, 03:19 AM
Very close, but no cigar yet. This plant will differ from Sucier in only one way.

But it is in the Sucrier subgroup.