51st state

is this the same as M. Itinerans var. Gigantea? does anyone have a photo of the latter?

and , also I found this:-

Musa dechangensis J.L.Liu & M.G.Liu, Acta Bot. Yunnan. 9: 163 (1987). This name is a synonym of Musa basjoo Siebold, Verh. Batav. Genootsch. Kunsten 12: 18 (1830). view Monocot Checklist entry

I'm not great on pronounciation but 'dechangensis' sounds very much like 'xishuangbannaensis' to me, are they the same or is this entry incorrect? It can't be a synonym for Basjoo can it?

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Gabe15

M. itinerans var. gigantea was just a preliminary name, it was never published. var. xishuangbannaensis is also an unpublished name, but will be official by March 2008. "ensis" means from, so when you see a name like that and take out the "ensis", you will easily find out where it is from. Xishuangbanna is a region of southern Yunnan province, Dechang appears to perhaps be another region of Yunnan (according to the description of "M. dechangensis", but Google maps shows some sort of Dechang further north), but in any case, they are not related.

Here are pictures http://natureproducts.net/Forest_Pro...rans_tall.html

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

bigdog

Yeah, I think they are supposed to be the same thing. There is a Musa itinerans variety that grows in Thailand at high elevations that grows well over 30 feet tall also, and should be very cold-hardy. I'd like to see some seeds of that one come available soon.