Tog Tan

I was out today with the intention of photographing the M/a ssp truncata with fruit and flower. It turned out I got more than what I wanted!
On my way back from the Northern side of the Central highlands at approx 1,000ft asl, I became curious when I saw many, many clumps of musa with a non glaucous leaf underside. I stopped my car for a closer look and couldn't make out what they were. Then an aborigine boy happen to walk along and I asked him how many types of wild 'naners are found in this area. He told me 'two' I asked him whether he knows of the spp with an upright flower and he pointed to a steep slope about 40 ft high. Up there was a flowering musa about 8ft in p/stem height. I asked him to cut it down for me to see and to my surprise, it is a Musa gracilis! Then I looked around me, they were ALL Musa gracilis!!! Man, I am not exaggerating, the whole area must be at least 2 hectares! Can you believe how stunned I was?
I then asked him to help me get the corm off the slope, as it is easier to climb up than to go down a creek. At least you know where you are falling down to, with a creek, you won't know where you will roll off to if you slip. It took us about 1/2 hour to extract the corm with his machete and my army entrenching tool. On my way down, I suddenly realized I was stepping on seedlings! They were everywhere! I picked a couple off and later walked around and took a couple more of the red blotched ones.
If you ask me, I am still in a shock on finding this Musa gracilis stronghold. Man, and I thought they were really rare when they are listed as vulnerable. Whew! Gotta have a cigar now...Cheers

At first I did not realize they were Musa gracilis as I have read they are small plants. It was only I saw the flower and fruits that I was shocked to see so many of them everywhere.


Contrary to belief, a minority (like a few %) of sdlgs actually have red mottled leaves. Compare it to the center plant which is a mottled M/a ssp malaccensis, M gracilis is lighter in tone and more yellowish green.


I had to show my ugly mug again..and my disgusting cigar.. My haul was 13 seedlings, a 10lb+ corm, flower and fruits and some assorted plants.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Gabe15

Nice find!

It is hard to tell from the photo, but are the female flowers in one or two rows per hand? Both M. gracilis and M. violascens are very similar and have many different forms each, but an easy way to tell them apart is that M. gracilis has fruit in one row per hand (uniseriate) and M. violascens has fruit in two rows per hand (biseriate). There are also natural hybrids between the two.

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

Tog Tan

Hi Gabe, they are uniseriate. There is another jumbo site on the western part separated by a mountain with a similar situation of Musa violascens. Heck lots of it like this place. Most of the Callimusa grow huge in the very moist areas.
I spoke to my friend who does alot of orchid collecting and he says he has seen a Callimusa with a red flower over another site separated by yet another mountain. I have told him to get the aborigines there to collect a few samples for me with the flower and fruit. I wonder what this is? Just can't wait to get my hands on it.
Anyway, I am getting my pals to collect from various localities for comparison. There are a couple of inaccessible places which are totally protected and the only way to get stuff out is by the aborigines. It's quite fun here where we can get the results fast if we do some hunting and make a couple of phone calls.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

bigdog

Wow again! LOL. I really don't want to hear about how you are jealous of me anymore! Nice find. Nice haul, too! Thanks,

Frank

Mark Hall

Tog, You are sooo lucky to find plants that most of us would kill for

Hope you managed to save a few seeds .

Seems like I need to move home to Malaysia

Keep up the plant hunting and please more pictures.

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

Bob

YOU STINK!!!! The only thing I stumbled on today was the ice under the snow I spent the afternoon removing at work! (and I get the joy of going in early again tommorow.)

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MediaHound

Wow, awesome, congrats Tog!
Looks like a fun adventure.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

austinl01

WOW! Totally awesome. Thanks so much for sharing pics with us!!!

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Tog Tan

Hey guys, thanks again for all the encouragements (esp you Bob!).
Regarding the emails and PM's I got about getting this stuff from me, can you guys wait awhile? The reason is, there are a couple more sources I will be looking up and connecting with some jungle collectors. Right now is not a good time to look for plants as it is raining like crazy. Sometime during the dry months about May, I will make trips again. This is the time most plants flower. Then I can choose plants with nice flowers in terms of size and coloration and even collect seeds. With this selection, I can grow them again for new corms which will be ideal for shipping. Don't worry about the cost, I am not a butcher! I will just use the funds generated for the costs of other trips.
The species which are known currently, won't 'go' anywhere. I just need to find them. I am more curious about some possible previously undescribed stuff like the red flower Callimusa mentioned by one of the orchid collectors. This, I am excited about.
Also, there are many places here which are still unexplored in terms of 'naners and I will use my old reptile trade network to get to the aborigines. You must understand that though I am a long time plant guy, I am only seriously into Musa after I joined bananas.org. Now, that makes me a newbie! I am learning like crazy and I must say, I am enjoying it more each day. I was a big time reptile trader and I had very good network in Peninsular M'sia and Borneo and other parts of this region. With the conversion to 'naners, I think my previous associates will be happy to help me out now. Cheers!

The smaller guys will be nursed at my house till they get new leaves. The bigger plants and the big corm will go to my nursery tomorrow. Mark, the Colocasia is for you. I have not seen it for sale anywhere and the leaf gets big to 6ft! It is velvety and thick when mature.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Mark Hall

Tog,I would love to be able to jump in the car drive a few hours and end up in some remote undiscovered jungle. Plus the thought of a possible new discovery of any type of plant would be a bonus.

Thanks for the Colocasia. The I.A.S have a section that you can send pictures of your Aroids and they try to name it for you.

Have you any more pictures of your trip?

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

Tog Tan

You are most welcome to hang out with me! Sorry, no more pix cos after the first couple of shots, I had to get into the action and had my hands full. Right after that my first thought were to get the plts home!
I will get more pix the next time I go there again.
As for the aroids, there are a couple more huge weird species here, maybe a variant of some known species or so. I have given up trying to identify or collect them. Now mostly I go hunting for musa, aglaonema, palms and dracaena. The dracaena is for my Thai Prof friend. A month ago, I found a new species.
Tog

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bananaman88

Hey, Tog, thanks for sharing your pictures with us!

bigdog

Hey Tog, upon further examination of the picture of you holding that inflorescence in your right hand, it looks like Musa violascens. It has two rows of fruit per bract! The other inflorescence at your feet appears to have only one row per bract. The sheer size of those plants is awesome, even for M. violascens! M. gracilis is supposed to be even smaller than M. violascens, which is listed as only 1-2 meters pseudostem height.

What do you think??

Frank

Tog Tan

Hi Frank,
You are RITE! The one on the ground is indeed the M gracilis inflorescence and fruits! My, what sharp eyes you have! I cut the M violascens bunch from a friend's nursery that day when he gave me a pup. I was so impressed by it, I had to show it off!
The M gracilis bud looked so bad that I didn't bother showing a close-up of it. I thought when I get a nice sample, I will update this thread with it then. In fact, I will get more pix of them in the wild as this site where they are found, they are basically in a very steep ravine and there's no way to get decent pix. Moreover, I was too busy doing the collecting.
However, I will cut the bunch up and take a pix of the fruit as it is when on the rachis, it is very difficult to see.
Btw, did you get my email?
Tog

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Christian

I am just back from my holidays and saw your thread. Congratulations. What a marvellous time you must have had that day. Glad you had a bit a hand from the local boy. Those corms can be heavy...

Christian

Tog Tan

Hi Christian,
I am only a little annoyed as I did not find the 'typical' shortish version described in all the papers. Its raining very bad here with people getting evacuated from their homes in many states, minor landslips and big landslides in the jungle areas. No point going now hunting and getting stuck in the jungle with only a couple of cigars waiting for SAR guys to turn up. Moreover there's no cell phone netwrok in these area and I don't have a satellite phone.
I will have to wait for the rains to ease off before I go to a place over the main range on the East to see a locality which is supposed to have tons of the 4-5ft mature plants. I am still trying to locate the pure white flower form from NE through my Orang Asli. Will update.
All the best.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

jmoore

Wow Tog I'm hugely jealous, I'm only a newbie to this banana growing myself, and thought I was doing pretty well with my ventricosium and superbum seedlings, but the pictures of your collection never cease to amaze me. You are truly an inspiration.