pitangadiego

Any idea what variety these might be? http://www.fixtravel.co.il/ Don't laugh - my dentist wants to know. ;-))

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Chironex

I think it would be informative to have you point out the things you notice about these in deducing what they may be.
For example:
Upright leaf growth
Height 6-8 ft
Red tint on pstem
Angle of the rachis
Color of blossom
number of hands
leaf color

Exercises like this will help all of us learn more about identifying banana plants.

Get the picture?

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Scot

MediaHound

Ariel would probably know. Those appear to be growing in Israel in some type of seasonal rental, Kibbutz, or Moshav... the photo name identifies it as being taken in the Galil Maaravi, the Western Galilee of Israel. That's in the North, close to but not the same general area I took these pictures:


Ariel is a local resident banana expert there, I would imagine he will put his finger on what they are. This is his profile:
Bananas.org - View Profile: ariel023
I have sent him a message to view the thread.

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MediaHound

This picture is from Ariel's gallery:

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Gabe15

I was going to say...it helps a lot to know where the plant is since there are always a few commonly seen varieties in any given place.

Jarreds photos are definitely a type of Cavendish (Grand Nain, Williams or something similar). The first photo looks Cavendish-like, but it is hard to tell since you can't see any details very well.

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harveyc

Ariel's e-mail address changed a few months ago and I don't think he's updated it here, so I'll send him a message to this discussion thread. He owes me a big favor! :P

By the way, Ariel has reported several times earlier this year of severe watering restrictions due to a bad drought in Israel and many banana plantations were reportedly abandoned.

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ariel023

Hi all banananists and banananers

The main var in Israel is the Grand Nain

The plantations are located in 3 productive zones: around the Sea of Galile, Zichron Yaacob and Western Galile (near the Med. Sea). The situation now, is that mostt of the leaves were torn by the winter winds and hail

White shade cloth all over the plantation is common in order to decrease water consumption and get better fruits, leaves, growth etc

The real nice thing developed here is the thinning of the older plants and planning of future generation

ariel

pitangadiego

Thanx to everyone for putting this together.

Chironex asked about the process of figuring this out - so here was my thinking:

They didn't look like red bananas, as the fruit was green (though there are some "red" bananas that have reverted to green). They were not tall, so that ruled out Brazilian, Praying hands, Misi Luki and a host of others. There were too many hands in the bunch to be Orinocco and Malango. The bananas seemed too fat for Lakatan or Tomoc, though the height was about right. The leaves seemed to be too erect for anything in the Cavendish family, which tend to be more horisontal or weeping. The narrower leaves tended to rule out Dwarf Namwah and Dwarf Colorado Blanco. I did not think about Gran Nain, but my GN does not get that tall here is San Diego - so it didn't seem like a logical answer from my experience. Hope that helps, a little.

The final answer also shows up the benefit of local knowledge.

Oh, and the dentist? He lived for a few years in Hawaii and was the one who pushed me to grow more than the two varieties I used to have, as my climate is more suitable than his location about 7-8 miles inland, in a valley where there are colder temps and frost. So, to the extent that I have be able to contribute to the knowledge database about bananas, we are all in his debt.

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Chironex

Thank you Jon, that is exactly what I was hoping to learn. To the untrained eye, these are good hints as well as deductive traits to use when identifying a banana. I hope to improve my skills on this too.

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Scot