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View Full Version : itenerans, yunnanensis or what?


coast crab
07-22-2009, 09:44 AM
Last year I bought seed of (supposedly) itenerans var gigantea from ebay seller "georgiavines". Two came up and one lived. Since I didn't have much faith in it I purchased a larger seedling from ebay seller "starchaser-2007" this spring. I have no idea what the seed source was for either. Hopefully this background info will help determine what I have. Incidentally, the two appear to be the same, and they are planted together. The one I grew from seed is samll and to the back to the seedling I bought in my gallery pictures.

First, I thought itenerans was the "Yunnan banana" until I saw yunnanensis on wiki. I see that they are different creatures. Now penJ has posted pictures of his yunnanensis that look a lot like my plant. Even though we're not supposed to, I think I've attached a picture showing the reddish tint to the back of a new leaf that to me looks like penJ's. Bigdog has posted pictures of his intenerans var intenerans that don't look anything like my "itenerans", but the picture of itenerans var gigantea in wiki does look like my tree - I think. The pstem and petioles are white and chalky if that helps any.

I have more pictures of it in my gallery too. Can anyone shed any light on this for me before I loose what's left of my mind?

Russell

penJ.
07-22-2009, 01:20 PM
Indeed looks prety much like mine. Source that i got seeds from said they came from India as itinerans, obviosly not itinerans. Another thing, i had high germination rate(100%), and almos every seed had two shots.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=19720&size=1

bigdog
07-22-2009, 08:52 PM
Sure looks like Musa yunnanensis to me. Here's mine as of yesterday:

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=19743&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19743&ppuser=49)

By the way, this is after a zone 7a winter, with a low of 3F in my yard last winter! The mat isn't as thick as it was last year, but 2 of the pseudostems are taller than I've ever had them. They gets bigger every year.

Frank

coast crab
07-22-2009, 09:47 PM
Thanks guys.

I think I can rule out itenerans. But wiki has no information on yunnanensis, does anyone have any specs? And does anyone actually have intenerans var gigantea in their collection? Does it really get as tall as claimed?

So has anyone else bought seeds from "georgiavines"? She has a lot of seed for sale now.

Russell

penJ.
07-23-2009, 04:10 AM
By the way, this is after a zone 7a winter, with a low of 3F in my yard last winter! The mat isn't as thick as it was last year, but 2 of the pseudostems are taller than I've ever had them. They gets bigger every year.

Frank

Last winter was something like that here also, and basjoo did not overwinter well with protection.. Now im going to dig whole clump of yunnanensis and overwinter it inside in a pot.

coast crab
07-23-2009, 08:39 AM
I just found last year's long thread that answers a lot of my itenerans/yunnanensis questions.

Russell