Gabe15
08-16-2007, 04:39 AM
This is Musa textilis (abaca fiber), and the only true to type specimen I have seen growing the in the US (at the Waimea Valley Audubon Center on the north shore of Oahu Hawaii). Everything other "Musa textilis" I have seen is either M. balbisiana (Ito-Basho fiber) or a M. balbisiana variant or hybrid (very interesting, not abaca, but possibly what is sometimes called canton fiber, a rare M. balbisiana and M. textilis hybrid).
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4807&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4807)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4806&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4806)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4805&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4805)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4807&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4807)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4806&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4806)
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=4805&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4805)