Re: Lakatan taste report
The Jamaican one is a cavendish type, but the Lacatan at USDA TARS is a gros michel type.[/quote]
I will have to reread the book on bananas that was written in the early 20s about the Westerly traveled Lacatan. It's been at least 10 years since I read it last. I know that the shorter Easterly traveled version was carried by the Spaniards to Mexico on the Galleon Trade route. The Lacatan at the USDA TARS is the tall version, so that must be the Carribean version. Unfortunately, when certain varieties are introduced into certain regions, and those varieties become popular or in demand, someone in the region may have something that looks close to the newly introduced variety, he may start calling it by the same name so that he can get the benefits, financial or notoriety, for having the newly introduced variety. This is true in the Philippines, not only in bananas but for other fruits as well. One fruit that comes to mind is the so-called "manguelas", which is a combination of the names "manga (mango)" and "seniguelas (red/yellow mombin)" and new owners, unfamiliar with the plant, would claim that it is a cross between a mango and seniguelas to. Actually, it is a form of seniguelas (Spondias mombin). Maguelas is Spondias dulcis/Spondias cheterea. So it is definitely not from the Mangifera (mango) lineage, although Mangifera and Spondias are actually related. The common name of manguelas is Ambarella. Imagine, a cross between mango and mombin??? So the owners can ask a higher price for their seedlings. In fact, Ambarella is native from the Malayan peninsula to the Philippines. So, someone from Jamaica may have had a nice clump of Cavendish and started calling it "Lacatan", thus the start of Lacatan strain with Cavendish qualities. I've read that in Cuba, the Lacatan has qualities similar to the Philippine variety.
Attached are excerpts from a couple of sources:
|