Latin Name: Musa zebrina Trade Name: bloodleaf banana Priced Each: $3.00 (4-INCH) Estimate Delivery: November 26. 2008 size="1">0102030405060708091011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950

Though the banana plant has the appearance of a sort of palm tree, and is often called a banana palm, it is actually considered a perennial herb. Also quite thick, the fibrous stems are made of layers of leaves that are wrapped around each other.

When growing Musa sumatrana, a high humidity of 50% is desirable. Hot dry air will bake the tender leaves. Your soil must have excellent drainage or the rootstocks may rot.

These ornamental types are given cultivar names like Rojo, Zebrina and Rubra, but they are not taxonomically valid. Because similar leaf colouration occurs in different subspecies of Musa acuminata, it is rather difficult to tell from which subspecies the ornamental forms have actually been derived.

Prior to shipment, your ornamental banana will be trimmed of leaves and packaged without soil. Due to damage concerns and freight charges, the method of shipping a full-size plant would not be practical. Our healthy tubers generally weigh 6-8 oz, and you can expect your first leaf to appear within 5-7 days.

BANANA FACTS:
Scholars of history often debate whether the actual forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple. The Koran states that it was a banana.

In his campaign in India in 327 BCE, Alexander the Great relished his first taste of the banana, an unusual fruit he saw growing on tall trees. He is even credited with bringing the banana from India to the Western world.

By 1402, Portuguese sailors discovered the luscious tropical fruit in their travels to the African continent and populated the Canary lslands with their first banana plantations.

Almost five-hundred years later, Americans tasted the first bananas to arrive in this country. Wrapped in tinfoil, bananas were sold for 10 cents each at a celebration held in Pennsylvania in 1876.

By the end of the 1800s, the U.S. was importing 16 million bunches of bananas a year from Central America.

Though there are about 300 species of bananas, only 20 varieties are commercially cultivated.

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Native Habitat: ?

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USDA Plant Hardiness: 10a to 11
(click here to see your USDA zone)

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