A pseudostem with a shady past the case of becky's mystery banana

摘要

In 1981 I purchased my first home which was in Santa Monica, California. With it came some old fruit trees, including a Haas avocado, a Babcock peach, a Eureka lemon, a pomegranate, an ancient fig, and a sizeable mat of un-pruned banana with luxuriantgrowth. I pruned the banana plant and quickly determined that it was a relatively foolproof Central American variety that local developers put into every yard when the area was developed in the 1920s. The variety produced large numbers of small, squareand very starchy fruit that were only good for cooking. This was a definite tip-off, however, that bananas could be successfully grown in that geographic area. This was an eye-opener for a New York City boy. I became enthused and began investigating banana varieties.