shopgirl2

Want to know where to find this fine banana. known also in Spanish as "guineo Montecristo".


thanks all

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mskitty38583

anbody have a pic of this nana??? ive hard of it once before in passing.

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mskitty38583

shopegirl the monte cristo bananas is also called the 'hamakua' or the 'bungulan' banana. not sure where they come from. this was all i found.

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chong

If it's the same "Bungulan" from the Philippines, it's a banana that's stays green even when ripe. The plant itself also is mostly green and grows to around 12 to 14 ft. Fruit is very sweet and soft pulp. Maybe even sweeter than the Senorita, though it does not have the same creamy texture. The size is usually the same as the store bananasa with the same skin thickness, as well.

shopgirl2

The Monte Cristo banana turns totally red (redish) when ready, not green.

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lorax

Might be similar to the red cultivars from Monticristi here in Ec - I can ask next time I'm there buying hats.

chong

The following previously posted publication lists the "Hamakua" in Hawaii, as equivalent to Philippine Bungulan and Monte Cristo internationally:
BananaSynonymsHawaii.pdf

Another source, search (Control F) Monte Cristo or Bungulan: Sorting Musa names.html

From Encanto Farms: "Bungulan fruit is round, very sweet, seedless and easily rots; has thick peel that is green when unripe and remains green when ripe; flesh is white when ripe; gestation period is 12 months. (067) {EDIT} Bungulan (Phi); Pisang Ambon Lumut (Ind, Mal); Kluai Hom Kiau (Tha) (141)"

That description is exactly of the Bungulan we had in the backyard of our last home we stayed in, in the Philippines. "Easily rots" as noted above means that their shelf life is short. The quality that makes it attractive is its sweetness.

damaclese

thanks chong do you mind if i take some quotes from your post for the wiki
I'm going to be posting some new pics of the MC here any day its getting bigger and i want to show a photographic chronology of its growth habit im doing it a one month intervols

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chong

Pauly,
You are welcome to use my post in any way. Most of it is similar to many websites on the same subject. So, for all intents and purposes, they are public domain.

I look forward to your MC's progress in pictures. Thank you for that.

When I have time tonight, if I can clip some of the pages of the Bungulan description, I'll post them here on this thread.

Chong

Michael_Andrew

I don't know anything about this plant but I can Google with the best of em. When I googled "guineo Montecristo" I found this page in spanish and had google translate it. It says the guineo Montecristo is from Puerto Rico and it turns yellow using this described ripening method:

Translated version of http://musalit.inibap.org/resume.php?idselect=10117&lang=es

Chironex

I have a couple of them just starting. Will post some pics when they get some size. Doubtful I will have any pups until later in the year and I am not good at keeping up with lists. Check back with me after summer if you're looking for pups.

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chong

Carmensol,
The Guineo Monte Cristo you want is apparently the name that Puerto Rico (and some South American countries) has adapted for the type of banana that you describe. I remember that at one time, I saw a website that had a picture of the Puerto Rican banana variety called Monte Cristo, where I saw that it was different from the Bungulan and the internationally known variety as the Monte Cristo. Although I did not find the exact website, while searching the net for it, I found this Puerto Rican recipe book that has a description of “guineo” in it. And from other sources, I found that “guineo”, apparently, came from the Spanish of “Guinea”. The Guinean slaves brought the banana to Puerto Rico, hence the “tree” and fruit were called “guineo”. I copied the text from the book verbatim. I translated the excerpt, but I have not consistently spoken nor written Spanish for more than 50 years, so there might be some disagreements from our Spanish, Castilian, Hispanic (speaking) members, and I welcome any corrections from them. (When making edits, please enclose them in parenthesis so that I will know what was changed. Thanks.)
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Cocine a gusto
By Berta Cabanillas, Berta Cabanillas de Rodríguez, Carmen Ginorio, Carmen Quirce De Mercado
Guineo (Banana). Musa sapientum. Se consigue todo el año; verde se consume como un vegetal y maduro se como fruta y se prepara de distintas maneras. Existen muchas variedades; guarán o gigante, el más grande; niño o de rosa o dátil, es más pequeño; guineo manzano de tamaño mediano; monte Cristy, más corto y grueso que el gigante de color verde y el morado, que es bastante grueso en proporción a su tamaño, de color rojizo morado, sabor ácido, el más barato.

Recipes you will like(probably more appropriately, Favorite Recipes)
Guineo (Banana). Musa sapientum. Available (obtainable) all year. Unripe (green), is eaten as a vegetable, and ripe, eaten as a fruit and prepared in different ways. There are many varieties: Guarán (region in South America, predominantly in Paraguay) or Giant, are the bigger ones; Baby, Rose, or Finger, are the smaller ones; Apple Banana, somewhere in the middle; Monte Cristo, shorter and thicker than huge, with green and purple color, which is fat enough in proportion to such, the reddish purple color, sour (acid) flavor, is (much) cheaper.
===========================================
Based on the above, I would conclude that in PR, the Musa Guineo Monte Cristo is synonymous to the variety that is internationally known as Musa Morado. If you look for the Puerto Rican Dwarf Banana, chances are that you will find a plant that is less than 8-ft tall, with less than 50% purple coloration on the p-stem and leaves, and fruits with green and purple coloration. The description above of the “monte Cristy” lends to the common name of “pig banana” (big and fat, and also cheap).

I found the following photos from Ecuador on the net and they were labeled Guineo Morado:



==========================================

As to the article linked to by Michael_Andrew (my oldest grandson’s name is Andrew Michael, can you believe that?), the translation of the article by software may be misleading in some phrases. One example is the conversion of the word “cámara”. It was translated as cámara, camera, and chamber in various sentences. The word “verde” could mean unripe or the color green. Relative to that, maduro (mature) definitely means ripe. But the Amarillo can mean Yellow, or it can also mean ripe, just to illustrate ripening by virtue of the change in color. For this particular variety, it can mean both, since the fruit of the PR Guineo Morado is not completely purple, but possessing some shade of green areas (See photos above.) Hence, when the fruit ripens, the green portions will turn yellow upon ripening, with the purple areas showing some yellowing.

lorax

Aha, so I'm not wrong. Guineo Morado is grown quite extensively in the Monticristi region, so I'm betting that is where they get their name in Ecuador at least.

And oddly enough, I've purchased bananas from the huts in those pictures - they're on the way to Baños.

Here's the skinny on what I've got for common names in my travels.

Guaránes are also called Maqueños in Ecuador and Colombia, and they're about as thick around as my wrist and as long as my forearm. They're generally made into cakes. Niña, rosa, and datíl are three distinct sizes, and in the case of rosas, colours of small-fingered bananas. Datíles are the sweetest and smallest of the three, and in Ecuador we commonly call Niñas "Oritos" (little golden ones). Monticristis, Morados, and Rosados are red-purple, and fairly large - there appears to be a regional difference to the naming of the banana, with the highlands favouring Morado and Rosado, and the coast favouring Montecristi.

Guineo is also the blanket term for sweet yellow bananas.

chong

Beth,
Thanks for the input. Small world, how about that? And on the way to the "Bathrooms" (Baños). (Just kidding. We have a town in the Philippines near Manila, called Los Baños. The site of University of the Philippines, where they do a lot of the agricultural research that has contributed a lot to the rest of the world in terms of better farm crops and new varieties of rice, especially.) That fruit stand must be really popular! And looks like they grow them right there. I like the view, too!

lorax

In Ecuador, Baños at the foot of Volcan Tungurahua, is a widely renowned hot-springs town - the full name of the town (translated) is "The Holy Healing Thermal Waters of Our Lady the Virgin of the Baths"

island cassie

Yes - here in the Dominican Republic the red bananas are called guineo morado - don't know how they distinguish between the ladyfinger size and the red whoppers from the tall red!

lorax

Oh, and that raceme the guy is carrying probably set him back between $1 and $1.50. Can't beat those prices!

Chironex

I think I have the Morados too. Just need to check to see if it is still growing.

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chong

Surely you must be talking about the Philippines. (LOL) Our legend has it that the waters from the hot springs at Los Baños has those healing powers, also. Must have come from the same Spanish friars. To be fair, though, they do have some healing powers. There is enough Sulfur in them to cure at least some skin conditions. And at some coastal towns, after taking a dip at the beach, we would soak in a small pond around a hot spring that we dug close to the water. At the pond that is further away from the shore, the temperature of the water is so hot that we would place eggs to cook for our snack. The Sulfur smell is so much stronger, though, compared to Los Baños.

Thanks again.

chong

A friend of mine, who recently came back from a Philippine vacation, told me a similar thing. He said that at one fruit stand, there were several racemes of Señoritas and he asked the lady there how much they were, she replied, "40 Pesos". To which he responded, "I don't want all of them. Just one." And she said, "That's just for one!" Feigning surprise, he retorted, "Really???? Well, in that case, can you lower the price a little?" To which she replied that he can go somewhere else. Boy!, was his wife so embarrassed. I told him that I would be, too. The rat. At the time, the exchange rate was 53 Pesos to $1!