Gabe15

Although I don't know all of the details in this case we are talking about, I do know it can be very difficult to get wild plant materials out of a country where they are native. This is a huge issue to the banana research community because many of the newly discovered species are not allowed to be moved outside of the country, with primary regards to moving them to the international genebank. As a result, many of the wild species are held at national collections or botanic gardens for conservation, which is a good start, but not useful outside of that country. There is a lot of work being done on working with the governments of countries with wild banana species to allow the plant material to be moved out of the country, not just for hobbyists, but for researchers. It is not so easy to just send plants out legally sometimes, so if it seems like there is some mal-intent with the people who have plants but can't send them to you, these legal issues could be a reason.

I started out as a hobbyist grower and continue to hobby grow bananas, I understand that many of us really want all of these interesting wild species, as I do too. However, in recent years I have been involved in banana research and work with many active banana scientists from all over the world. Something that I try to make light of on this forum is that there is a whole different side of bananas out there that hobbyists often do not interact with or are not aware of. This is the side of the banana research community who devote their careers to helping the hundreds of millions of people who depend on bananas each day for their livelihoods. Many of the issues we face as hobbyists are the same issues researchers face, so there is indeed active work to do things such as collect and distribute wild species and local landraces, or to breed for characteristics such as improved cold hardiness or disease resistance.

Its hard for me to find the exact words, but the main point Id like to make is that there are many people who are right this moment devoting their lives to these issues which the hobby community in general may see as great obstacles. I'm not saying hobbyists shouldn't help acquire new species (for example), I encourage everyone to do all they can, but while we're doing it to remember that at the end of the day, if we don't have a new species for our collection, its not that a big of a deal compared to the researchers who are working to get those same plants for breeding of genetic studies to improve bananas for those people who truly benefit and depend on them.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.