Rmplmnz

Tuesday, 10/07/2007

Authorities say the surprise discovery of an exotic banana variety on the New South Wales' north coast is a major threat to the Australian industry.

An established stand of seed bananas has been found in remote bushland near the town of Nimbin.

Banana growers have offered to pay for the chemical control of the inedible banana, and have contacted the 40 private landowners involved to get their permission.

Arthur Akehurst from the Department of Primary Industries says the nine kilometre square stand of plants could be a host for diseases.

"If by any chance an exotic disease was to get into these bananas, that would be a major problem for the industry because it is very hard to control because the area is so remote and we've got a bank of seed there, because over I don't know how many years there, but they've been growing for quite a few years."

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/con...7/s1974764.htm

Gabe15

I hope its not one of the RARE and ENDANGERED wild species of northern Australia as it would be a terrible shame to destroy them.

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Rmplmnz

Probably is....I know growing bananas in Australia is very restrictive...I believe they only allow private growers to grow approximately 15 selected varieties...and they are super paranoid about bunchy top virus..

Check this pdf file out:

http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LE...9/99SL310R.pdf

MediaHound

"9km square"
not too shabby

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xyzzy

I would have thought wild bananas would have been mostly resistant to these diseases - it is the cultivated ones I would be more concerned might be harbouring banana diseases.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

Lagniappe

The article states that it is an "exotic " variety .
Of course , a group would call a wild stand 'introduced ' or exotic if they wanted to see it removed without disturbing those who would otherwise protect it .
A small stand could be removed under the radar but 9 square kilometers would hardly go unoticed even in a remote area .
Still, given 10 years in such a climate , with say musella lasiocarpa or musa velutina, besides their prolific spreading nature , animals could easily spread a stand out to 9sq km .

bigdog

I can almost guarantee that whoever wrote that article knows nothing about seeded banana species, and probably doesn't even know there are bananas that are native to Australia. Case in point: I saw an article posted many months ago on another forum concerning palms in Los Angeles, CA. The jist of the article was that more shade trees were needed, and that some of the palms had gotten old and were "in need of removing" (paraphrasing). One of the ladies interviewed in the article, an "expert" on native plants, said that palms aren't even native there! Huh? Err...ever heard of the California Fan Palm, aka Washingtonia filifera? Wow!

Like Gabe suggested, I certainly hope they aren't just going to eradicate them without evaluating them first. Sounds like they are taking a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach to it. Hope we don't lose a possible valuable species with new genes.