View Full Version : ornamental bananas?
glued2it
08-28-2008, 04:01 PM
When these tress were givin to me I was told they were some kind of ornamental banana. Not sure really.
Any ideas?
Taylor
08-28-2008, 04:15 PM
There are a lot of Ornamentals. We would need a pic to help ID.
It could be (just some examples):
Musa basjoo
Musa bordelon
Musa zebrina
Musa ornata (all colors)
Musa coccinea
The list goes on...
glued2it
08-28-2008, 04:39 PM
oops! I forgot the pic.
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh316/tqjpics/bt7-23-08.jpg
Taylor
08-28-2008, 05:26 PM
OH that?! That is edible.
Looks like Musa orinoco to me.
Kylie2x
08-28-2008, 05:28 PM
Nice looking Banana.. It would be easier to tell you what it is not..Than what it is...LOL
glued2it
08-28-2008, 05:32 PM
Nice looking Banana.. It would be easier to tell you what it is not..Than what it is...LOL
Process of elimination?
I know it's not a dwarf so That narrows it down a little.
Here is a pic of the pups from last nov.
I can take more pics if need be.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd186/glued2it/110407.jpg
Chironex
08-28-2008, 06:49 PM
Are you running CO2 into the room or is that tank for something else?
glued2it
08-28-2008, 10:33 PM
Are you running CO2 into the room or is that tank for something else?
No that's the back storage room were the kegerator sits.:nanadrink:
sandy0225
09-08-2008, 05:52 PM
If you were told they were an ornamental banana, then they might be paradisica, which looks like an edible but it's seeded.
Taylor
09-08-2008, 06:06 PM
But what are the chances that someone just "had" (so to speak) a paradisiaca on hand?
It's probably just an Orinoco... since that is such a common one (in these parts).
Gabe15
09-08-2008, 07:21 PM
M. paradisiaca doesn't exist, its a name for the type species that has been used to mean either any banana or just edible bananas in general, but it doesn't really matter since its rarely used correctly anymore. In the past at a certain time, nearly every single banana described (whether seeded or edible) was given the name "Musa paradisiaca subsp...or var...", but that system was very flawed and abandoned decades ago. Some plant and seed dealers seem to still refer to these very old and outdated papers as references for plant names. It should really only be used if you want to scientifically refer to all edible banana plants without naming a specific variety, but even if used correctly by an author, it seems to be rarely interpreted as intended. It gets a little confusing in some places like Africa, where for some regions to make it easy on the farmers, they instituted that all dessert bananas be referred to as M. sapientum and plantains as M. paradisiaca, but this is not how it used at all in the scientific community.
Read this for more info on use of the name Musa paradisiaca and Musa sapientum.
Musa paradisiaca (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~drc/mparadisiaca.htm)
As for your plant, there are a couple of possibilities. Someone could have been growing it and never got fruit, or got fruit but it never matured or they otherwise just never ate it, and so assumed it was a purely ornamental banana. The only seeded (sometimes equated with being purely ornamental in the hobby side of things) banana that it might be is Musa balbisiana, but it really does look much more like an edible type, likely Musa 'Orinoco' as Taylor mentioned. Musa balbisiana has many different forms, so its sometimes hard to ID until it fruit as there are quite a few edible varieties that look very similar. Generally, unless a banana has very unique and distinct foliar traits, its very difficult to give a proper ID until it bears fruit.
glued2it
09-09-2008, 12:09 AM
It seems as If the owner of the original tree misunderstood (as well as I) what a true ornamental banana is.
When I discussing the tree he stated that he had got banana's one year but they were short and fat thus him thinking they were ornamentals as opposed to the banana's bought form the store.
I now know that there are edible and inedible(ornamental)banana's.
So far the ornico's I have seen look a lot like mine and am so far convinced that's what they are. However I have seen a couple others that are real close as well.
I'm concerned more about there cold hardiness other just the knowledge of the species.
Chironex
09-09-2008, 12:43 AM
Gabe took the words right outta my mouth.
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