tony palmer

Musa zaifui sp. nov.

Here is an update on the progress of the zaifui that i bought in August last year.

a pic. of one of them in August last year.


I over wintered them in the house... I wasn't going to take any chances with this very rare nana, and in May I placed them in my poly for optimum growing conditions!
I've found them to be a very fast growing nana at temps between 70 and 90F.

a pic from May this year.


at this stage they display the beautiful burgundy/red petioles, the leaves also have a graceful lax form and not upright... like lets say Ornata.
they also pup well too!! one has produced 7 pups and the other 9.


this is a pic from yesterday.. there now at a mature height, with the Pstem at 1.1m and the leaves at one meter long, the burgundy or red in the petioles has also become much more reduced in colour.




Thanks for looking,
Tony

aroidgrower

Would love to buy or trade for one of these once you have extra to divide..

Raules

Greetings Tony! Good work. This banana is rare. I hope at you will be fast a flower. This kind described Markku Hakkinen:
Musa zaifui sp. nov. (Musaceae) from Yunnan, China----Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden,CAS

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tony palmer

Hi Raules,
Because zaifui is such a rare plant with only a handful found in the wild, I feel obligated to try and help save it in cultivation!
I have given 6 of the pups away to UK members, and I will try to get at least one over to the United States.
if you would like to try zaifui in Russia PM next year when the weather is good for posting and I will ship one to you.

All that said.. I cant be certain the plant I have is Zaifui until it flowers!! but whatever it is though, its a beautiful plant and not one that would normally be available.

Another look at those burgundy red petioles.


Tony

Clinton3666

I wishes I find the fresh seeds of musa zaifui.

Better to sell the seeds than pups overseas as seeds get into overseas countries easier than pups.

Can you please help me find the seed suppliers that sell seeds of musa zaifui ???

Clinton.

tony palmer

Hi Clinton,
I bought the zaifui as plants from Belgium and I don’t think there is a seed supplier for zaifui!
If I ever get seeds on them I will send you some.

Tony

jmoore

Spezialsortimente, Musa

This is the only place I've seen that sells seeds of this species, however, who knows when they will be getting any more.

Clinton3666

Sunshine-Seeds.de had NEVER sell seeds of musa zaifui.

I know about Sunshine-Seeds.de as I bought seeds from that website, for few past years.

Markku Hakkinen

I really don't know if someone has received the seeds of M.zaifuii from XTBG. The plants there are in a specific nursery outside the botanical garden's Musa collection. It stature looks a bit different from the plant which I collected. Let's wait when the plant is flowering.
Markku.

tony palmer

I’m experimenting with zaifui’s cold tolerance at the mo..

I have one of my zaifui in the loft/roof, the leaves have browned off but the stem remains firm, the lowest temp in the loft so far has been -1c
I have three in my porch, the lowest temp in the porch has been 0c the average temp is 5c, the stems and leaves all look good… so far!
I also have one in my polytunnel on the allotment, the stem remains firm but the leaves have been frosted off and the lowest temp in the poly so far has been..
-3.5c, it will be interesting to see if that one survives the winter.


Tony

tony palmer

I’ve been testing the cold tolerance of this little known Nana and here are the results, I left one overwintering in the loft and it survived with the p-stem in tacked and it is now growing again, coldest temp was 0c at pot level and -1c near the roof, -7c outside.

I also left three in my north facing porch and they have also survived with the p-stem in tacked, lowest temp was 0c.

The big surprise was with one that I left in my polytunnel ,the p-stem collapsed but the corm has survived and it is now sending up a pup, the coldest temp was -6.2c!! -7c outside, all the zaifui had 3ft p-stems.

I also left two Basjoo in the poly and they had 4ft p-stems, they haven’t fared much better than the zaifui.

Next winter I’m going to try zaifui planted out in my garden with the p-stem protected!

Zaifui with pup.


The two Basjoo.


The poly on a cold winter’s day.



Cheers,
Tony

tony palmer

Despite the miserable weather we have had in April and May in the UK, the zaifui that survived -6.2c is looking good.
One night in April temps went down to -2c in the poly and all nanas with leaves above 2ft off the ground got frosted off.



Tony

caliboy1994

That's a really pretty looking plant.

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Musa777

Hi,

I was able to seperate the first time four offsets from the zaifui Tony sent me last year (Thank you again Tony!).
If the pot whould be larger the offsets whould have been growing rather long away from the mother plant. The offsets had very much roots on the bottom side.

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Alexander

Thats a very nice new species! And hopefully it has good coldhardiness like Musa basjoo! It would be nice to try it here also.

I guess if you grow them under glass for a couple of years you will get much quicker lots of new plants.

Alexander

Clinton3666

I wish I would get fresh seeds of musa zaifui and musa siamensis from you.
Please PM me if you have seeds.

Musa777

Dear Clinton,

Sorry I do not have seeds of this zaifui in the moment. The plants I have are still too small. Maybe in three years. I will also try to cross them with another cold hardy species.

Dear Alexander,

Unfortunatelly it´s not at all that cold hardy as Musa basjoo. Musa basjoo is the cold hardiest banana plant. But Musa zaifui is much more cold hardy as I was expecting. And also very small suckers are already rather cold hardy and growing very fast.

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Best wishes from Germany to all plant lovers.
frosthartepalmen.de

Alexander

I have a young one now. Well its in a warm greenhouse and I will let it bulk up there first. Then I can always try some of its offspring outside.

Its good we can grow at least Musa basjoo well here outside. But another Musa species would be nice to add. Especially as its look very nice and ornamental with red stems.

Alexander

Tiare

Hi y`all, if anyone happen to have a pup to send to Sweden in the spring i`d love to try this one and grow together with my basjoo.

bigdog

Has anyone gotten this to flower and set seeds yet? I'm interested!!!

The thing that makes me wonder if the plant pictured might be something else is that in Markku's description of Musa zaifui, he doesn't mention anything about the suckers having long rhizomes like the ones in the picture. The plant pictured has more of a M. itinerans habit with those long rhizomes. Here is an excerpt from the official description of M. zaifui:

"Plant slender, suckering close to parent plant 10
-30cm, with up to 7-8 suckers, position vertical."

Nowhere in the article does Markku mention long rhizomes. Maybe he can chime in.

With that being said, that is a beautiful Musa, whatever it is!