Originally Posted by Matt Turner

Sorry, when I wrote, "Down here a fruiting banana that looks just like M. balbisiana is I think more common (at least along the coast)." I meant to say an eating banana (i.e. seedless). I'm not sure what variety it is. But it must have a lot of balbisiana in it, and may even be a seedless BB. I talked to one owner, and (as far as I could make out through his Kagoshima dialect!) he said that about fifty years ago they were planted by the local government along the national road, and at some point (this was the bit I didn't understand - maybe after a re-routing of the road?) they were freely? distributed to locals who wanted one.