A Travellers Palm?
 

Hello banana friends,

A little bit funny travellers palm? No it is a Dwarf Orinoco.
It seems that its leaves have been choked some way, and they prevented
the petioles from growing for some reasons unknown to me.
This is a potted plant in 60L plastic container. It might be different if planted
in the ground, not in a container. I have no idea at all.
It seems to me that dwarf bananas like Dwf. Cavendish, Cal.Gold and Dwf.
Orinoco are all equally prone to this kind of inclination.
Is this only in my case? or rather common phenomenon?

Re: A Travellers Palm?
 

Looks normal to me, except for one leaf.

Re: A Travellers Palm?
 

I have seen this occasionally with some of my bananas. And I think only with the TC plants. I do not know what causes this, perhaps some type of mutation in the specific plant. I have never seen a normal leafed plant just start to do this, and it seems stable. I even had one that grew sideways along the ground like a rhizome instead of a corm! I had another, Dwarf Hua Moa, which typically grew only to about 2'-3' tall with gray leaves about 12" long and grew like a Fan also. It was so very unusual, a real "Liliputian" banana, it looked like a true Bonsai banana tree perfect in scale, not like Truly Tiny or other small bananas. The roots would continually develop and grow out of the P-stem upwards on the stalk until I had to cut them off at ground level and replant them! I have photos of both of these oddities in my members Photo Gallery. Look for the photos entitled "Mutant Musa" and "Musa Hua Moa Dwarf Fan" to view them, they are worth looking at! There is also another photo of a Dwarf Cavendish 'Fan' there.
Varig8
Banana Gallery - Mutant Musa
Banana Gallery - Musa Hua Moa Dwarf Fan
Banana Gallery - Dwarf Cavendish Fan-top view
Banana Gallery - Dwarf Cavendish Fan
Banana Gallery - Member Profile

Re: A Travellers Palm?
 

It happened to my SDC. The mother plant died because the middle of the plant started to open new leaves and basically the whole thing just rotted, but the pups are growing normally unlike the mother was. My SDC was also growing very slow so I wonder if this "travelers palm" growth habit also slows the plant down (or maybe the cause of the "travelers palm" growth habit is what slows the plant down).

Re: A Travellers Palm?
 

I had a SDC do this once as well; all the leaves grew in one plane just like a traveller's palm.

Re: A Travellers Palm?
 

I've read that potassium deficiency can cause these symptoms -- the traveller's palm look.