Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My Amorph current state of affairs - winter, 0 by tropicbreeze

tropicbreeze wrote:
You can't get many banana species here. The banana industry is very powerful and over 100 years ago they got the government to stop any import of bananas, plants, even seed. They claimed it risked disease being brought in. So the ban continues to be in effect.

I'd heard of the Musa ingens and thought I'd really like one. A couple of years ago I was trekking in Papua New Guinea and I saw this tree trunk on the ground which looked a bit odd. Seeing tree trunks on the ground in the rainforest isn't unusual in itself. But this one had a different texture. I looked again and realised it was a banana the dimensions of a huge rainforest tree. I looked around and realised I'd been walking past lots of them. Because you need to watch your footing you don't often look up. But as it was laying on the ground it was obvious. Very difficult to get a photo of, they disappear in amongst the tree canopy. But I did get some photos. These won't grow for me, not in the tropical lowlands, especially equatorial where I am. And they need protection from wind, that's why they grow amongst the big trees. The ones in the photo you couldn't put your arms around the trunk.

You'd love Papua New Guinea. Aroids, all over the ground and in the trees, some really huge. The 3rd photo is a Xanthosoma.