'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

The 'Siam Ruby' I gave to the Denver Botanic Gardens years ago was planted in the conservatory about two years ago and is flowering at last. In line with my predication and what I was observed by a friend of mine who saw one flower in Florida, it indeed appears to be a wild plant, meaning no edible fruit. This is the first time the plant is flowering, so its true traits are not fully showing yet, and the male flowers appeared to have been eaten by something which is a big problem in pinpointing exactly what it is, but it is obvious it is a non-parthenocarpic plant. It may or may not be referable to some known taxon, likely some form of M. acuminata, but there is still more work to be done.

I examined some of the unopened flowers protected by the bract. They are not supposed to be used in formal descriptions as the color can change upon opening, if the anthers or style are to be exerted past the compound tepal it will only be noticeable when the flowers open, and pollen is not visible until flower opens, but they are fully grown so can still provide some useful information. One thing that was interesting about the flowers are the highly irregular free tepals. They actually varied quite a lot in apex shape and had a variable number of lobes. A few of the compound tepals were also irregular. Another interesting trait was the variable shape of the exertion point of the leaf lamina base to the petiole. They are normally consistent within a plant, but this plant had symmetric, left-handed asymmetry and right-handed asymmetry among different leaves of roughly the same age in the same mat.

Something like this could be a real trait of the plant, or it could be a somatic mutation resulting from tissue culture.Hopefully I can catch the plant flowering next time and take more notes.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Thanks gabe!

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

WOW, The first pics ever, I was just about to give up on all hope of it flowering. Thanks Gabe.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

FINALLY! The SR mystery has been unraveled alas! Nice pics, Gabe....and thanks for all the information!

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Although we now know it's not edible, I still don't know what exactly it is. It may turn out to be a new species or a new infraspecific taxa of a known species. It is also difficult to know much more without knowing exactly where it came from and observing wild populations, or if there even are wild populations. I am helping with getting a DNA test performed so that will tell more as well.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Too cool Gabe. A lot of us have been waiting for someone to have this success for a long time so please keep us posted with any developments!

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

VERY COOL!!!
Will keep checking back to see what other details you find out!!!
Thanks Gabe!! :) ~Cheryl

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Thanks so much Gabe. A first in the annals of bananadom!

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Beautiful photos! I look an adult plant loses the bright dark color, and becomes more green. This high plant, how many it in height?

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

If you get viable seed you might find out what the original type looks like. I'd bet that most of the seedlings would look like the true species if you could cross it back to itself.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Great documentation Gabe, thanks for the report. It's an awesome plant nevertheless.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

finally thanks allot for posting this

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Cool! Nice to see what the bud and fruit looks like. I didn't really figure it would have edible fruit but it's good to finally get confirmation.

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

:goteam::woohoonaner::goteam::birthdaynana:

Awsome!

Put those pic in the wiki :D

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

great work!

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

Thanks for the pics Gabe:lurk:

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

^^^Agreed!^^^

Re: 'Siam Ruby' flowering
 

cool!