Hardy Banana Tree
From PlantWiki
| Hardy Banana Tree |
|---|
|
| Species |
| Musa |
History
Even though bananas are enjoyed around the world for their fruit, the Musa varieties of ornamental hardy banana trees are prized for their landscaping enrichment.
Bananas have been part of the human diet since before recorded history. One of the earliest records mentioning these fruits are the ancient Buddhists texts as early as 600 BC. When Alexander the Great conquered India in 327 BC, he recorded discovering delicious bananas growing there. His soldiers returned to Persia and Greece with the bulbs to plant and trade.
Augustus Caesar’s personal physician, Antonius Musa, imported bananas from Africa to Rome around 63 BC. In the 1400’s Portuguese slaves brought the fruit back from Africa.
More recent finding show that the fruit was introduced from southeast Asia to the New World, specifically Ecuador, around 200 BC. Then the Spanish and Portuguese explorers and missionaries brought them over to the Caribbean islands in the 1500’s. The first organized banana plantation was formed by the Portuguese in the Caribbean in 1502.
Most of the bananas grown today are grown from the “mother” bulb. The offshoots are shipped around the world and are almost genetically identical to the parent plants from thousands of years ago. Although bananas are grown in hot, humid areas around the globe, some hardy bananas have adapted to colder climates where temperatures can drop into single digits. Although these bananas may not produce edible fruit, they give a tropical look to landscapes as far north as Canada. In colder climates they can be grown in containers and brought inside for winter.
Characteristics
Bananas trees are not trees, but the actually the world’s largest perennial herb. The true stems of hardy bananas grow underground where they form a coarse rhizome that sends up new trunks as the plant grows. Mature trunks can grow 6’ tall and can be 4”- 5” at maturity. The ribbed, broad foliage may extend out 4’-6’ and 1’ wide and give the appearance of a much taller tree.
Under the ground is the corm with a trunk (pseudostem) that is made up of concentric layers of leaf sheaths. New leaf sheaves grow from the center of the “trunk.” It takes 10- 15 months without frost for the tree to produce fruit, but in most areas of the country there won’t be enough time before frost for flowers and fruit to develop. Besides the fruit of hardy bananas is not edible.
Hardy bananas come in a few of varieties. The Musa Basjoo, Musaella lasiocarpa and Musa sikkimensis and the most common with the Musa Basjoo being the most cold hardy. With protective covering it can survive in the ground down to -20F degrees.
Hardy bananas like full sun and will grow faster with more sunlight. They like lots of water, sometimes needing two watering a day in the hot summer days. The leaves are delicate and will shred in wind. Without wind the leaves are long and oar-shaped.
Plant new little hardy bananas in the spring in fertile, well-drained soil in partial shade. This will give the plants time to grow and become hardy. In really cold areas after the first frost, when the leaves begin to die, dig them up and bring them inside in pots. In the third year they may be ready to stay outside.