'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

Go here to find out more.

Monday, 15 March 2010

Cool Bananas.



Just behind my new studio is a clump of banana 'trees'. I glanced up today and noticed something unusual: a reddish leafy thing.

On closer inspection I could see - wow! - baby bananas!

The bananas seem to grow in a rotation around inside the flower and the 'petals' fall off one after the other as the hand of bananas ripens.

I had to resort to a ladder and the flash and zoom to take a good image of the flowers against the bright sky.

If you look carefully below, you can see the back end of a wasp that is helping itself to the nectar.

Aren't they exotic! I suppose they are a common, unremarkable sight to people in many parts of the world, but I am thrilled to have them in my own back garden. The bananas are quite small and I suspect they are what Wiki calls 'wild' bananas. But I'm definitely going to taste one. The problem will be getting up that high. Any suggestions? Does anyone know anything about when to pick them?


6 comments:

  1. Kitty15.3.10

    Oh! How fun! I look forward to hear how they taste at some future date!

    ReplyDelete
  2. EB15.3.10

    What a fascinating post! In Thailand some of the nicest bananas we ate were very small.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yorkshire Pudding15.3.10

    "The problem will be getting up that high. Any suggestions?"
    How about a ladder? Failing that perhaps a helicopter and if you can't locate one how about some good old-fashioned marijuana?

    ReplyDelete
  4. VioletSky16.3.10

    This is exciting! Banana trees are certainly not a common sight in my neck of the world. Though, we have a banana exhibit at the botanical gardens this month that ties is wonderfully with your post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alden Smith17.3.10

    How to get to them? - In banana plantations don't they chop the whole tree down with a machete when the bananas are ripe, which enables you to get the bananas and sets up the tree for a big spurt of growth and more bananas the following season - or did I dream that? might of, considering I know nothing about garden stuff at all -I name the whole botanic world with one name - Greenis Vegetatis.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anil P20.3.10

    How wonderful to have bananas grow in the backyard.

    It'll be fun to check up on it weekly, delighting in its lifecycle.

    Out here, where monkeys could run riot, ripening bananas on trees are wrapped in jute sacks.

    ReplyDelete

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