Immortal Banana
“Consider the banana (Musa). The commercial varieties do not produce seeds, and their culture is limited to isolating sprouts and placing them in favorable ecological conditions. These banana clones are as ancient as tropical agriculture itself, 10,000-20,000 years….To me, the banana…represents an optimal means of immortality….” Francis Hallé: In Praise of Plants.
One of the first things I learned about bananas after moving to a country where they’re grown is that the banana plant is an herb, not a tree. So… that make them immortal? Wow! All right.
Next question.
Does it matter whether bananas retain their “skirts?”
As far as I can tell, a banana leaf has a life span independent of the life span of the plant itself. Once the leaf has “died,” it drops and hangs out near the “trunk” of the banana plant. Is this good or bad?
I’ve yet to find out. Any reports would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, I am looking for a Mary, who has posted on my gardening blog. I couldn’t find a profile or whatever, so I am writing blindly here. Please write me if you are the correct person.
Andee
It’s been awhile since I studied bananas but I do recall that the plant as an agricultural seedless predates maize, wheat, rice and just about every other crop plant. It struck me as quite a mystery as to how it became so domesticated such a long time before others.
Andee – guilty as charged.
Wayne – I was surprised, too. Now that I’m in Panama, though, where bananas are such an important part of the cuisine, I have a thought about that. Green bananas – not plantains, but green bananas – are sold in larger numbers here than sweet bananas, known as dessert bananas. The green ones are cooked like plantains and are used as a starch. I can see cultivating a starch like this because you can use it immediately, without grinding or any other processing.
Another common starch here, yuca (cassava or manioc), is also cultivated by cloning and was also domesticated very early. I could get carried away by the idea of cloning vs seed propagation as the earliest agricultural technique except I read somewhere that the orange was in fact the very earliest domesticated food!
Hi, I have read is several places than some people believe that bananas, not apples, were the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Metaphorically speaking of course. I love the little sweet bananas that grow around here. My neighbors seem to regularly wander off in the dense greenery around here, with their machetes, and return in a bit with giant “clumps” or whatever they’re called. I am always give some. Or it seems that way. Often a little kid shows up at the door with an “ear”, a “fan”, and “palm” or whatever they are called. So I ask who sent them over and tip the kids. And thank the adult who gatheed them later. They are sooo good. Even the regular bananas, the dessert bananas, I guess, are so delicious here. I guess because they are picked locally, and almost ripe. Sorry, this isn’t a very scientific post. A.
Andee – you’re exactly right about the taste of these locally grown bananas, nothing at all like the supermarket variety we get in the US. And no surprise that some should consider it the fruit in the Garden of Eden.
I’m so glad you mentioned the taste, and your experiences with local bananas. I sometimes, more often than I should, actually, wear blinders and see only a narrow portion of something I’m looking at. Good to have a broader view.
Hi Mary,
The question on the leaves is interesting. In the case of Musa, as I understand it, although the lamina dies, the petiole persists to form part of the “stem” so the leaf (or part of it) remains for quite some time.
But is their a role for the leaf skirt? I’d assume this is a natural state so there might not be any significance in it’s persistance, but some beneficial roles might be
1) Thermal insulation – protecting the “stem” from too much sun or cold for that matter.
2) Mulch around base to suppress competition
but I’m just guessing…
This abstract seems to suggest that leaf persistance in Cordyline is linked to insulation from the cold. Here in Australia, Xanthorrhea (Grass trees) retain thier leaves and this helps insulates their stems from the heat of fires.
Working in a nursery about ten years ago I observed a rather interesting leaf skirt in Geranium maderense. It’s usually biennual and the hypocotyl tends to be a bit spindly. However as the rosette develops the thick petioles of the older leaves are pushed down onto the soil. As the plant gets larger these old leaves effectively form a series of props to hold the plant stable. When it flowers it produces a rather huge infloresence all supplied with water by a hypocotyl barely thicker than a pencil. From what I observed it seems to avoid toppling over because of it’s skirt.
A rather cool trick, I thought.
Anyway I’d be interested to know if functions for this skirt are known.
Thank you for the link to the very interesting article on leaf persistence in Cordyline. The idea of old leaves helping insulate stems against either cold or the heat of fires is fascinating.
I had had one of the same thoughts as you about banana skirts – possible protection from too much sun – but I hadn’t thought about the mulch idea to suppress competition. Of course bananas want their “babies” (that’s what they call the young shoots here) to survive, and those shoots are quite close to the “mother” stalk, but the skirts might supress grass and other weeds. Good idea.
Also, the Geranium maderense story is intriguing. Thanks for relating it.
The “skirt” you refer to is a response to the sheath layers of the tree no longer being able to support the leaf. It has already contributed to the growth of the tree and has been replaced by other leaves. There has not been any collective study to try to prolong the life of the leaves, but would help cultures who use the leaves in their cooking practices. The skirt forming would help in protecting the pseudostem from burning in very hot sunlight. It would also provide shelter for insects and ants. It would be good to find out if the insects being protected are helpful to the plant or not. Cutting them & shredding them would return a mulch for you to use.
Robert – Thank you! Every point you raise makes sense, and I’m glad to have your viewpoint.
It is now more than two years since I wrote this post, and I’ve been watching banana plants fairly consistently during this time. I’ve seen that as the plants grow taller, the “skirt” effect is lost. The leaves continue to droop as they die back, of course, but eventually the pseudostem is taller than the leaves are long so the leaves no longer reach down to the ground. During the dry (and windy) season, the dead leaves flap around so their value as protection for insects or against sun is probably lessened. I like the idea of chopping the leaves and using them for mulch.
Thanks again for your comment. It’s much appreciated.