Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

I picked up this Ensete ventrisocum today at a nursery in West Hollywood (XOTX Tropico, one of the most amazing places in the world for plants nerds). It was grown from seed collected in Mozambique. It has a nice red pseudostem and definitely looks unique, he has many of these still at the nursery if anyone is interested.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

gabe you hit the mother load. that is a beautiful nana. congrats on the find.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

beautiful ,! that stem looks really red.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Gabe, I will take one after you TC it. lol

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Looks very similar if not identical to what we call hiniba over here.So its good to know its still out there somewhere.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

so maybe it's a heat tolerant form of Ensete ventricosum from Mozambique?

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Could be Hiniba (which has a more upright habit than normal Ventricosum). I call that form Ensete Ventricosum 'red rib'. Just popped out and took this photo...

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

There are many, many different forms of E. ventricosum. In Ethiopia, there are over 50 named varieties used for food, and wild populations of any plant often have lots of diversity. This particular color form is likely not referable to any variety currently on the market. The pseudostem and petioles are very similar to Musa 'Jamaican Red' colorwise.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Gabe, how are you going to get it back to Hawaii?:bunchonanas:

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Managed to find a couple of recentish pics of the hiniba thats planted out in the garden,might not be the best quality but you can see its got the same dark red petioles and glaucus undersides on the leaves.
Attachment 730

Attachment 731

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

Steve, Your plant of Hiniba looks different to Gabes plant. His has a deep red trunk whereas yours is more green.

I never knew there were so many different types of ensete.

My Hiniba refuses to grow:(. I have had it over a year now and its no bigger than when I first got it.

I checked the roots last week and there wasn't any( shock horror) so its now been cleaned up re potted into a smaller pot and given some palmbooster to try and kick start it into growth.

Re: Wild Ensete ventricosum
 

That is one beautiful EV! Hope you get some seeds soon. I would love to try it.