mackmccaleb

I picked this out of a pile of roadside debris. It has grown the fastest out of all my other bananas and is the first to flower. I've tried to identify it on my own, but I'm not sure which parts of the flower are identifying factors. From my research, this appears to be most similar to pictures of Raja Puri variety. Can anyone confirm and also explain what characteristics define this variety? Thanks for the help, I've been able to learn a lot from this forum and hope to learn more

freediver

No idea of the variety. They all look the same to me. But a question: why are all the leaves chopped off around the flower?

Gabe15

It is 'Orinoco', not 'Raja Puri'. It's going to have a hard time/likely not able to fill out the fruit without leaves. But all you can really do is just let it be, so just leave it and see what happens.

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mackmccaleb

I cut back all the frost damaged leaves from the winter, then the flower emerged. Obviously it's not ideal, but I had no idea it was going to bloom.

Gabe, can you tell me what lead you to that conclusion? What characteristic specifically helped you identify it as Orinoco?

Akula

That's a good size bunch for an orinoco. Seems like most of the orinoco's posted on here are usually a a couple hands with a couple fingers.

Gabe15

Half of ID'ing is context and narrowing down the likely possibilities, then confirming specific traits from there. I found from a previous post you are in Alabama, and most of the members on this forum are on the Mainland US anyway. 'Orinoco' is one of the most common bananas in the US, especially in the South, and more often than not the one people find randomly growing on roadsides and backyards. There are other cultivars with the same basic traits, and only subtle differences, but it would be very unlikely to find them randomly where you are located. If you were in Indonesia instead, we would have to look much closer and do more extensive research to narrow down a specific cultivar given the greater diversity.

Some of the specific traits of your plant which I suppose stand out to me that point to 'Orinoco' are: the plant color (basically all green), a generous amount of wax on the pseudostem and bracts, red/purple bracts, large cupped reddish free tepals, a touch of reddish color on the young fruits just below the flower on the distal end, female bud shape, a little bit of imbrication on the apex of the female bud, and probably other things as well.

I don't generally look at specific traits however unless I am diving deep and trying to sort out closely related things, but rather take in the whole picture. It's like seeing someone you know, you don't recognize someone by looking at each feature of their face, you just see the whole thing at once and you know.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Tytaylor77

It is Orinoco. Click my flikr link. I have lots of Orinoco flowers and bunches. They get HUGE!

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