Re: Hardy Bananas

In a message dated 9/18/99 4:07:59 PM EST, cnorman@best.com writes:

<<  If you pick them ripe they have tons of huge seeds.  When you
 pick them green the seeds are so small you won't even know they're there. >>

Cyndi:

Ahem (I've been wanting to use that expression ever since Dave Poole used it 
on me in our discussion of leaf-cutter bees, if anyone remembers that), 
according to the information I've been gathering online, all of the principle 
culinary varieties (known as bananas or plantains, in English) are either 
diploid, triploid, or tetraploid hybrids of just two species, M. acuminata 
and M. balbisiana, and the fruits don't produce seeds.  In these varieties, 
the first flowers to appear on the inflorescence are female, and the ovaries 
contained in these first (female) flowers grow rapidly, developing 
parthenocarpically (without pollination) into clusters of fruits, called 
hands. The number of hands varies with the species and variety.  The male 
part of the inflorescence appears after the female, and is usually just cut 
off to allow the plant to devote its energy to the developing fruit. The 
common cultivated types are generally seedless with just vestiges of ovules 
visible as brown specks. Occasionally, cross-pollination with wild types will 
result in a number of seeds in a normally seedless variety. The small little 
spots you see in edible bananas are actually immature ovules.  Most of this 
information was found at the California Rare Fruit Growers website, mentioned 
in an earlier posting.  By the way, my "big banana" is down to one leaf, the 
others having wilted and/or been cut off.  It makes quite an interesting 
statement that way.  The smaller offsets don't appear to have suffered at 
all.  I asked my older daughter what she thought of the "look" of the banana 
plants on the patio and in the garden.  She said it reminds her of  
"Golfland," a miniature golf course/waterslide/video arcade theme park here 
in town.  I don't think she meant it as a compliment.  You know how 
sophisticated 18-year-olds can be!  I'll be driving her down to La Jolla this 
Friday (she's a freshman at UC San Diego, and it's move-in weekend), and, 
thanks to a tip from member Nan Sterman, we'll be making a visit to the 
"banana lady" at Quail Gardens in Encinitas on our way back home (there 
should be plenty of room for a few botanical purchases in the van after we've 
unloaded all of my daughter's "stuff!"

All the best to you,
Kurt "The Banana Man" Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
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