I have a Musa Basjoo "Shakhalin" in my garden. It's about 4 1/2 years old now.

In the winter I had it in a glasshous, just above 5C to stop it from growing. When I gave water a few weeks before re-planting outside, the trunk became thicker.

But nothing else happened. I expected it to create some leaves, but instead of that, the trunk split open. It was starting flowering, just after winter, so no leaves, just a flower.

A small pup emerged from the side and started to shoot leaves.

The flower came out of the side of the trunk, but:

Instead of one flower, there were at least 9 (!) extra flowers!

So one large flower in the middle, and others at the places where you expect a hand of bananas!

Two of the flowers broke when the racime emerged, but the rest came out, although they were very small. In every flower you could see the bananas. It has a full bunch of bananas in every flower.

Has anyone seen such a thing with a basjoo?

Has anyone an explanation why this happened?

Greetings from Holland,

Simon