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jbclem

Is this a Brasilian (Dwarf) pup?

jbclem
16 years ago

I have a banana plant that I just dug up and moved to a new house. It's supposed to be a dwarf brasilian but I don't have a way to prove it. It's sending up a small pup with leaves and I'm going to try to post a photo to see if anyone can identify it for me.

If the photo makes it in, can anyone identify it by the leaf coloration?

jc

Comments (8)

  • jbclem
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I can't get the image in, here's a link instead.

    jc

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:411994}}

  • andrea_san_diego
    16 years ago

    It looks just like mine. Same size too.

  • bananimal
    16 years ago

    I is probably a dwarf cavendish, if it has some red in the leaves, like the picture. Several sources describe the Brazilian, dwarf or not, as "solid green with no red color". Check out the banana page on the World Wide plants website. I just ran outside to check out my Dwarf Brazilian and it is solid green as well. Hey, enjoy your cavendish. But you may want to buy a dwarf brazilian also. It is a majestic plant, and it's fruit is one of the best tasting desert bananas in the world.

  • jbclem
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    The chances of it being Cavendish are very low...I already had an old clump of Cavendish in another yard, and they were a much lower plant, and there wouldn't have been a reason to buy a full size Cavendish. Also, the World Wide plant website shows a Cavendish photo with solid green leaves. As has their photo of a full size Brasilian. Is it possible that the reddish blotches on the leaves will disappear? I just looked at the mother plant which only has one torn leaf showing, but there is no sign of red blotches, and even the leaf midrib is solid green, whereas the pup's midrib is reddish.

    What a confusion, is this a Dwarf Brasilian giving birth to a Cavendish???

    Andrea, can you take a look at the leaves and midrib of your mother plant and see if they match the pup's?

    jc

  • jbclem
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Going to try the image one more time...

    {{gwi:411994}}
    jc

  • bananimal
    16 years ago

    Size is not an issue. The Cavendish sub-group runs the full range of heights at maturity. Giant cavendish, cavendish, dwarf cavendish, super dwarf cavendish and the Truly Tiny (check out the pic in Stokestropicals bananas on this one). I have one of their super dwarfs in a corner plant bed inside the pool enclosure. It has a lot of red but midribs are green. And, like you said, I see each new leaf has less and less red than the original ones. All the pics I just looked at have varing degrees of red but all had green ribs. Is some one using a magic marker on these things??? Whatever. Bottom line -- get a dwf brazilian -- most tasty.

  • fglavin
    16 years ago

    I am going to have to disagree with bananimal on this one. That Musa looks exactly like my Brazilian pup. When they are smaller, they do tend to show red coloration in the leaves. As they grow larger, they tend to grow out of it.

  • jbclem
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    So glad to hear that, fglavin. Not only because the dwarf Brasilian will fit my temperature range better than most(I need some cold hardiness), but also because the last time I was in Brasil I spend months driving down the coast (from Bahia to Santa Catarina) and just about lived off of the banana prata (aka Santa Catarina, aka Brasilian, aka banana branca in Rio and states to the north of Rio). It was like eating candy, that's how sweet they are...and buying them from roadside stands(all the local banana farms had little stands) for a couple of cents apiece, well you could say I over indulged...but it was my pleasure to do so!

    So thanks for your opinion...and you're right, I don't remember the mother having any obvious red in the leaves.

    John

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