chrisltropical

What is your take on Musa Nepal?

Here's a description....

http://www.exo-center.com/Musa%20Nepal.htm

Just wondering what the banana experts have to say about this potentially new cold hardy banana?

51st state

I think you'll find its Ensete Glaucum, the key in the description they give is the fat trunk. got to be an ensete.


http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_D...t_ID~18984.cfm

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the flying dutchman

In the dutch Text he uses the word Tuber instead Trunk.

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bigdog

I have never heard of this species until your post. The banana in the picture is neither Ensete glaucum nor Ensete ventricosum, but rather a Musa. It's a beauty too! Seems as if Europe has more cold-hardy bananas available than the U.S.

the flying dutchman

I don't know but if you push the 'ORDER' button it has disappeared for me.

Ron

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Steve in France

I don't know what it is , I thought it might be Musa sp 'Tibet' but it's not. I did find an old pic of Tibet in my garden , you can still get it from Roland of Tropical Centre in Holland.



Later
Steve

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Always looking for a lost pup

Dombo

Hello,

may be that Musa Nepal is the same as Musa sp. Yangtse.

here is a link to Musa Nepal:

Musa Nepal pictures from gardens photos on webshots

here are pics of my Musa sp. Yangtse I got from Tobias Spanner.







Some months later















the Musa sp. Yangtse is very seldom, and the problem is, that the most trated Yangtses are other Musas.

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Greetings
Olli

bigdog

Dombo, I think that your Musa sp. 'Yangtse' is a form of Musa itinerans, but I'm not sure which one. The leaf bases are right, the petiole wings look similar, the midrib is the right color also. Not much to go on really, just a guess. Can't tell much about the Musa 'Nepal'. Nice-looking plant though! Wish these would accidentally (or purposely) find their way over to the US.

Dombo

Hello Frank,

I'm sure that mine is not an itinerans variety.
The growth is different from the itinerans.
Tobias Spanner brought the Musa sp. Yangtse from Yunan to germany.
His import (about 15 years ago) seemed to be the only entrance of this species to europe.
Seeds are not available.
This is the reason, why this plant is so rare.
My plant was a sucker of the plant that Tobias Spanner imported.
It seems, that all Musas with the name sp.Tibet and Nepal are the same as Musa sp. Yangtse.

You get the plants with the names sp. Tibet and Nepal much oftener.
So it suggests itself, that the Yangtse was tissue cultured some years ago and offered with new names by other salesmen,
... but this is anyone's guess!

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Greetings
Olli

Tropicallvr

I contacted that seller of Musa Nepal about 6 months ago. He was asking $45, and would only do a bank transfer of funds, and it would have costed me $50 for the transfer, so I decided to pass. I think it's probably something special, and wouldn't mind ordering sometime in the future.
Oliver- Yours does appear similar, but the Nepal has alot more wax on the trunk.

Zac in NC

Very interesting. I imagine it could be pretty hardy too.

Zac

Dombo

Hello,

yes, it seems to be very hardy.
I want to plant it this year in my garden, then I can compare it with the cold hardiness of my outside cultivated Musa basjoo, Musa sikkimensis and Musa Orinoco.

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Greetings
Olli

tony palmer

I know on the continent Musa Yangtze and Tibet are said to be the same plant, although that is true , they are both Musa Balbisiana forms, they were collected in two totally different places, Musa Tibet was collected in the Quinghai Plateau Tibet by Jean-Luc Penninckx, and Musa Yangtze was collected by Martin Gibbons and Toby Spanner in the Yangtze river valley in China, as they were both collected at different altitudes and places , that could have an reflection on their hardiness.

Dombo

Hello Tony,

this is very interesting and thank you for this information.

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Greetings
Olli

bigdog

I would like to see somebody raise all three of them side-by-side and get them all to flower and fruit. Only then will we have a better idea of what they really are. I see a slight resemblance to Musa balbisiana, but I don't think that is what Oliver's banana is. I still think it looks like a Musa itinerans variety. There are 6 varieties of Musa itinerans, and not all of them have the long rhizomes. Some are moderate, loose clumpers.

tony palmer

Is there anyone else who thinks like me, the pic of M.nepal and the pic on webshots of M.tibet are the same plant but at different stages of growth, note the bamboo to the right and the ivy in the background on both pics, it isnt possible that the pic. of M.nepal is an Ensete because they dont clump like that, but the desciption is that of an Ensete, all very confusing.
Frank, i will ask Dr. Ge, he is an expert on bananas in southern yunnan, China, i know he has seen M.balbisiana sp.tibet in the wild and he may of seen Musa yangtze.

Dombo

Hello,

flowers seem still to be unknown, and seeds as well.
The Musa Nepal in my link looks like my Yangtse, so they really seem to be the same species.
I have got the Musa itinerans, Musa itinerans "Indian Form" and the Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis.
These itinerans varieties are without doubt different to my Yangtse.
Which itinerans varieties could be like my Yangtse, so I could try to compare it.
Dr. Michael Lorek from Tropengarten says <>
But I think, that no one really knows it, because there is nowhere to find a scientific based statement.

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Greetings
Olli

bigdog

Professor Markku Hakkinen has written an article on Musa itinerans, scheduled to appear in the next issue of Novon, a quarterly journal dedicated to botanical nomenclature.

I thought your Musa sp. 'Yangtse' looked like Musa itinerans 'Yunnan'. The M. itinerans varieties that I know about are var. xishuangbannaensis, var. guangdongensis (Burmese Blue), 'Yunnan', var. itinerans (which could be the same as 'India Form'). The only two that send out very long rhizomes are var. xishuangbannaensis and var. itinerans. The rest are moderate clumpers, according to Professor Hakkinen. I don't know where M. formosana fits into the complex, since it is a runner as well.

Tropicallvr

With all this talk of hardy Musa balbisiana, it's really hard to tell if those plants are actually Musa balbisiana. There are at least 6 different hardy Musa species(M.thompsonii, M.initerans, M.tibet, M.yantzee, M.daj giant, M.hardy German) that have the Musa balbisiana leaf trait(recurved leaf where it meets the petiole). Until they flower, leaf shape isn't enough to go on.
I have to agree with Frank, they look like different plants, and it seems to me to be a form of M. initerans also.

bigdog