Banana Musa
Monday, April 19th, 2010Banana Musa
|
|
P104-10 Hot Pink Party Flower Girls Holiday Dress 7T-8T $23.68 |
|
|
SN12 NEW Flower Girl Wedding Prom Party Dress SZ 4-5 $0.90 |
|
|
Pretty jade flower pendant ring earring set $21.70 |
The History And Evolution Of Banana Hybrids
Bananas are the world’s favorite fruit and many nations depend on banana trees to supply its citizens with this delicious food product to save them from famines. Bananas are available on markets year round and are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, containing only small hollow seed that are infertile. Ornamental bananas, ‘Musa ensete’ and ‘Musa nana’ are inedible but in high demand for landscaping.
India is the world’s largest producer of bananas and Alexander the Great found them growing there in 327 BC, when he conquered India. Soldiers of Alexander the Great returned to Greece and Persia with bulbs from banana plants, ‘Musa accuminata,’ where they were distributed and planted.
Antonius Musa, the personal physician of Augustus Caesar, imported the first banana trees, ‘Musa accuminata,’ to Rome from Africa in 63 BC. Later, slaves from Portugal brought bananas to Europe from Africa in the early 1400′s. Even though the banana is believed to have originated in India, (Eastern Asia), it was established in Africa and Europe as a staple food product many centuries ago and came into North America through Spanish missionaries.
Those first bananas that people knew in antiquity were not sweet like the bananas we know today, but were cooking bananas or plantain bananas with a starchy taste and composition. The bright yellow bananas that we know today were discovered as a mutation from the plantain banana by a Jamaican, Jean Francois Poujot, in the year 1836. He found this hybrid mutation growing in his banana tree plantation with a sweet flavor and a yellow color—instead of green or red, and not requiring cooking like the plantain banana. The rapid establishment of this new exotic fruit was welcomed worldwide, and it was massively grown for world markets.
Bananas are the world’s best selling fruit, outselling both apples and citrus; each American is estimated to eat 25 pounds of fruit every day. The ‘Cavendish’ banana is the most popular banana in the United States and over 400 cultivars of bananas are available on world markets. The leaves of banana trees are used as wrappers for steaming other foods inside, and the banana flower is also edible.
Each banana comes from a flower maturing into groups of 10-20 bananas called “hands” that circle the stalk, which collectively is called a ‘bunch.’ The bananas can require one year to mature after flowering in the field, and then the mother banana plant dies. The plant is restored the following season by offshoots from the mother plant. An original cluster of banana trees can grow continuously for 100 years, but are generally replaced in banana tree plantations after 25 years. Bananas ripen best and develop more sweetness, if the bunch is removed from the tree, allowing the fruit to ripen off the tree in a shady place to slowly ripen.
The banana tree can grow up to 30 feet tall, and the trunk of the tree grows to a width at the base of over 1 foot. The trunk of the banana plant is made of overlapping sheaths and stems with new growth emerging from the center of the trunk. The size of bananas can range from a fruit the size of a football to one as small as a child’s finger. Some bananas taste sweet, some starchy and some ornamental bananas are loaded with large seed and are considered inedible. The color of ripe bananas can range from green, orange, brown, yellow, or variegated with white stripes.
Most banana trees available today are grown from “mother” bulbs by taking offsets that form shoots. Those can be replanted to multiply and increase a banana tree plantation. These banana sprouts that form at the base of the ‘mother’ bulb can be shipped around the world to many countries, being almost genetically identical to the original banana plant parent of 10,000 years ago that mutated and stopped making seed and became the first naturally evolved hybrid.
Bananas are the largest exported fruit in the world, registering sales of 12 billion dollars a year for Chiquita and Dole. These bananas are imported into the United States from companies and plantations growing banana trees in India, South America and Africa. Many third world countries depend on the production of bananas to feed them as a major food staple, where they eat bananas 3 meals a day. Bananas are rich in sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose, as well as fiber and special minerals containing potassium, phosphorous, magnesium and iron. Bananas contain tryptophan, a body protein that is converted to serotonin, a mood enhancer. They also are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin C. Doctors claim that eating bananas can cut the risk of sudden stroke by 40%, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Eat the LandscapeâTrees and shrubs for structure, beauty and food
Inside a rustic outbuilding at One Green World Nursery (onegreenworld.com) in Molalla, Oregon, affable owner, Jim Gilbert, presided over a tasting table piled high with enticing fruits. I wanted to grow every single thing I put in my mouth. Yellow cherries, aptly named ‘Gold’, were so tangy and juicy I had to restrain my hand from leaping out for more, even as I savored my first sampling. Plates of red, black, pink and white currants displayed names like ‘Blanká’, ‘Swedish White’, ‘Revada’, and ‘Gloire des Sablons’. Each one carried a flavor as distinct as different wines. Jim offered me edible blossoms of pineapple guava—the petals surprisingly soft and sweet. I stood there, trying not to gobble the delectables, and made a vow—the next tree or shrub I buy will feed me. Why not have landscaping that gives you food? Especially when the plants are so unusual and beautiful.
I found the perfect plum in the sale yard. Prunus ‘Nichols’ shows off bright red foliage and deep red fruit, inside and out. It was hardy to minus thirty degrees. Less hardy dwarf pineapple Ananas comosus ‘Sugar Loaf’was a great candidate for greenhouse culture. Fruiting tropicals can spend summers outside, and then reside in a bright glasshouse for the rest of the year.
I asked Jim for a tip on how to determine which plants would be happy growing in greenhouses. He told me to look for those less-vigorous varieties that are naturally dwarf or grow slowly. The small fig tree, Ficus carica ‘Negronne’, with its dark red-fleshed fruit, flourishes in container culture. Jim also liked dwarf citrus. He gave me terrific advice for growing citrus in containers—use acid potting mixes—the kind for rhododendrons. The acidity of the free-draining soil mix allows plants to take up more essential nutrients, including iron. (For other tips on citrus, see my column, “What’s Wrong with my Plant?â€)
Ten fruiting plants to try in greenhouses
- Citrus junos ‘Yuzu Ichandrin’ – lemon-lime flavored fruit
- Citrus latifolia ‘Bearss’ – juicy lime
- Citrus meyeri –  easy-to-grow Meyer lemon
- Eriobotrya japonica – loquat, light orange fruit
- Feijoa sellowiana – pineapple guava, for fruit and those delicious petals.
- Ficus carica ‘Atreano’ – dwarf fig, light green fruits with pink flesh
- Punica granatum ‘Sochi Dwarf’ – dwarf pomegranate
- Musa acuminata ‘Super Dwarf’ – eight-foot tall banana, for fruit, leaves
- Olea europaea ‘Arbequina’ – compact Spanish olive
•          Ugni molinae – Chilean guava, small tasty fruit.
|
|
30″ SILK BOSTON FERN BUSH tree house office plant #5651 $16.95 |
|
|
1887 Damaged Print Colour View Mapledurham River Trees $34.25 |
|
|
2009 Malaysia Palm Tree Diamond Plant Korea MNH O/P M/S $2.99 |
musa basjoo (banana) protection in zone 6. ohio
|
|
BANANA -Musa Sikkimensis Manipur 10 seeds $5.00 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa balbisiana 10 seeds $3.00 |
|
|
Bulb MUSA CHILIOCARPA BACK 100 hand Banana Plant +Phyto $34.00 |
|
|
Ensete Maurellii – Banana Canna Colocasia Musa $12.00 |
|
|
Musa JAMAICAN RED Dwarf BANANA Tree ~Live Plants $5.00 |
|
|
* MUSA COCCINEA – SCARLET BANANA * SEEDS $1.99 |
|
|
* PINK FLOWERING BANANA – MUSA VIOLACEA * SEEDS $0.99 |
|
|
MUSA BASJOO Cold Hardy BANANA Plants **Healthy** $4.99 |
|
|
*COLD HARDY* Darjeeling Banana Tree, Musa Sikkimensis $9.99 |
|
|
‘Siam Ruby’ Musa Banana Plant 4.5 In. Pot $7.99 |
|
|
MUSA COCCINEA SCARLET BANANA LIVE RHIZOME TROPICAL $9.99 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa siamensis (Thai Gold) 10 seeds $3.50 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa balbisiana Gigantea (King Kong) 10 seeds $3.50 |
|
|
Musa ornata – Exotic ornamental banana 30 seed pkt $4.95 |
|
|
## Bulb Musa (BBB Group) Kluai Him Saba Banana Plant ## $34.00 |
|
|
Musa BASJOO Banana Tree COLD HARDY 3-4′ LARGE 5 gallon $49.99 |
|
|
* PINK VELVET BANANA-MUSA VELUTINA * SEEDS $0.99 |
|
|
Cold Hardy MUSA BASJOO~3 foot Tall Live Plants Banana $9.50 |
|
|
* MUSA LATERITA – BRONZE BANANA * EXOTIC!! SEEDS $1.79 |
|
|
Musa JAMAICAN RED Dwarf BANANA Tree ~Live Plants $5.00 |
|
|
Musa BLUE JAVA Banana Tree ~Tastes like Ice Cream $6.00 |
|
|
Musa BASJOO Banana Tree Live Cold Hardy 2 plants OLDER $29.99 |
|
|
Musa Basjoo – Banana Canna Colocasia Hardy Tropical $12.00 |
|
|
Banana plant, Musa Cavendish, dwarf banana $8.88 |
|
|
Musa basjoo 4′ plant, Cold hardiest banana! $34.95 |
|
|
Musa velutina Banana, 2′ plant, Zone 7 hardy $14.95 |
|
|
Musa sikkimensis DAJ GIANT HARDY BANANA Seeds! $2.99 |
|
|
10 Musa Ornata Purple Flower Banana Tree Seeds TROPICAL $3.69 |
|
|
MUSA MANNII INDIAN DWARF BANANA PLANT FRUIT TREE SEEDS $3.69 |
|
|
Mini Super Dwarf Cavendish Musa banana plant 8″+ tall $5.79 |
|
|
Williams Hybrid Dwarf Musa banana plant 18+” tall $5.79 |
|
|
SEEDS MUSA VELUTINA -PINK VELVET BANANA Plant $0.99 |
|
|
Super Dwarf Patio Banana Plant – Musa $9.99 |
|
|
Canna flaccida – Banana Colocasia ginger Ensete Musa $9.00 |
|
|
*COLD HARDY* Daj Giant Banana Tree, MUSA X sikkimensis $9.99 |
|
|
Canna intrigue – Banana Colocasia ginger Ensete Musa $9.00 |
|
|
Canna Omega – Banana Colocasia ginger Ensete Musa $9.00 |
|
|
Cold Hardy MUSA BASJOO~3 foot Tall Live Plants Banana $9.50 |
|
|
Musa JAMAICAN RED Dwarf BANANA Tree ~Live Plants $5.00 |
|
|
Musa BLUE JAVA Banana Tree ~Tastes like Ice Cream $6.00 |
|
|
MUSA SUPER DWARF CAVENDISH- Fast & easy banana plant $7.99 |
|
|
Musa BASJOO Banana Tree Live Cold Hardy 2 plants OLDER $28.99 |
|
|
Musa Sikkimensis Banana Tree Plant Live Cold Hardy Rare $39.99 |
|
|
BANANA Rare = Musa Violacea 10 seeds $2.75 |
|
|
MUSA COCCINEA SCARLET BANANA LIVE RHIZOME TROPICAL $9.99 |
|
|
MUSA COCCINEA SCARLET BANANA LIVE RHIZOME TROPICAL $7.49 |
|
|
MUSA BASJOO Cold Hardy BANANA Plant**4 ft**BIG**BOLD $45.00 |
|
|
Musa coccinea RED TORCH BANANA Ornamental Banana ~SEEDS $3.99 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa Bauensis 5 seeds $5.00 |
|
|
* MUSA LATERITA – BRONZE BANANA * EXOTIC!! SEEDS $1.79 |
|
|
Musa GRAN NAIN Banana Tree Plant LIVE RARE (2) $31.99 |
|
|
Musa zebrina – Rare & Exotic “Blood Banana” 50 seeds $5.95 |
|
|
‘Siam Ruby” Musa Banana Tree – Flat of 72 Plant $360.00 |
|
|
Musa Blood Red Rojo Banana Tree Plant Live 1 gallon $17.99 |
|
|
Musa ornata – **STUNNING** LAVENDER BANANA 25 seeds $4.95 |
|
|
Musa ornata – Exotic ornamental banana 25 seed pkt $4.95 |
|
|
Musa Praying Hands Banana Tree Live Plant 2-3′ $22.99 |
|
|
# Bulb DWARF CAVENDISH Musa Banana Plant + Phyto Cert # $34.00 |
|
|
Musa SIAM YELLOW Banana Tree Cold Hardy Pair RARE $24.99 |
|
|
Musella Lasiocarpa Chinese yellow banana musa 24+ tall $7.79 |
|
|
Banana Musa VELUTINA (Baby Pink) Plant 2-3′ RARE $23.99 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa Coccinea uranoscopus 10 seeds $2.25 |
|
|
BANANA Rare = Musa Mannii 10 seeds $5.00 |
|
|
MUSA BASJOO Cold Hardy BANANA Plant**4 ft**BIG**BOLD $65.00 |
|
|
BANANA – MUSA ROYAL PURPLE 10 seeds $2.50 |
|
|
Bulb Musa (AAB group) “Kluai Chang” Banana Plant +Phyto $34.00 |
|
|
Musa (ABB group) “Kluai Nam Wa Dam” Banana Plant +Phyto $69.00 |
|
|
Musa Banana “Florida” Beautiful Leave and Hard to fine! $98.99 |
|
|
Dwarf Banana Musa ‘Truly Tiny’ live plant $5.99 |
|
|
5 Seeds Musa Sikkimensis Darjeeling Banana $2.25 |
|
|
15 Seeds Musa Sikkimensis Darjeeling Banana $4.99 |
|
|
5 Seeds MUSA LATERITA – BRONZE BANANA $2.25 |
|
|
15 Seeds MUSA LATERITA – BRONZE BANANA $4.99 |
|
|
5 Seeds Musa Velutina Seeds Pink Velvet Banana Seeds $2.25 |
|
|
15 Seeds Musa Velutina Seeds Pink Velvet Banana Seeds $4.00 |
|
|
Musa ornata – Exotic ornamental banana 1000 seed pkt $49.95 |
|
|
Musa Thai Black – Banana Colocasia Aroid Philodendron $12.00 |
|
|
Musa saba – Banana Colocasia Aroid Philodendron $12.00 |
|
|
Musa Basjoo Banana Tree Cold Hardy 2-3′ Tall 2 Gallon $29.99 |
|
|
MUSA MANNII INDIAN DWARF BANANA PLANT FRUIT TREE SEEDS $3.69 |
|
|
Ensete Ventricosum Musa Banana Tree Live Plant $29.99 |
|
|
~Musa Zebrina~ Blood Banana Live Plant ~ $7.95 |
|
|
~Musa Zebrina~ Blood Banana Live Plant ~ $7.95 |
|
|
Jamaican RED Dwarf BANANA Tree ~Live Plants EDIBLE MUSA $7.95 |
|
|
Musa zebrina – “Blood Banana” Collector pkt 100 seeds $7.95 |
|
|
Purple Banana (musa velutina) Tropical Rainforest Seeds $3.00 |
|
|
Bulb Musa (AAA group) “Kluai Nak” (Red Banana) Plant ## $34.00 |
|
|
Musa Banana “TA NEE” Beautiful Leave and Hard to fine!! $99.98 |
|
|
Musella – Musa Banana Colocasia Aroid Philodendron $22.00 |
|
|
Musa Basjoo Large 1G – Banana Canna Colocasia Tropical $22.00 |
|
|
Musa Siam Ruby 1G – Banana Canna Colocasia Tropical $26.00 |
|
|
Musa Ornata Milky Way Banana Tree Plant $19.99 |
|
|
Banana Musa High Color Mini, a miniature, sweet fruit $8.99 |
|
|
MUSA ” ZEBRINA” BLOOD BANANA PLANT 1 1/2 FT TALL $7.99 |
|
|
MUSA BASJOO Cold Hardy BANANA Plant 3ft**Healthy** $24.99 |
|
|
MUSA BASJOO Cold Hardy BANANA Plant 3-4ft**Healthy** $29.50 |
|
|
BANANA – Musa campestris var miriensis 5 seeds $5.00 |
|
|
Musa sikkimensis HARDY HIMALAYAN BANANA Seeds! $2.99 |
|
|
Musa Velutina – Dwarf Pink Banana Seeds 30 seeds $4.95 |