Chance1945

HarryWho, I'm glad you asked that question. Last fall my mystery banana put out a funky leaf which at first I thought was malformed because of the cold. Then I notice that at the top of the pstem it looked liked my plant was pregnant. It dawned on me that the malformed leaf was a flag leaf and that I had a bloom about to emerge. We had 3 or 4 cold snaps through the winter and I wrapped the bud in an old blanket.

Now that it has warmed up the bloom has emerged and I have several hands of bananas but no new leaves. Like you, I wondered if the plant could feed these new bananas because it has no leaves. It's the largest of a mat of 4 plants and the other plants are just starting to put out new leaves.

I'm anxious to read the answers to your question. Later I hope that with my description of the plant and the bananas that someone will be able to help me identify this plant. It's about 10 feet tall and the new fruit appears to be short and fat. A dessert banana perhaps? Or will I ever be able to identify it?

HarryWho

As an update, I ran into a bit of a Banana expert and upon inspecting the plant and fruit he told me it's a Hua Moa. After looking it up on this site, I have to agree. I used a lot of the fruit to make tostones, which were excellent, but saved a half dozen to fully ripen. When they get ripe they're sweet and creamy.