Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe15
Musa troglodytarum is an improper (and out dated) name that was applied to Feh'i group edible Musa. However, the name is not as important as the plant and the plants that it immplies are definetly ones that most collectors would like in their possesion (myself included!). Feh'i (aka Fe'i) is a group of edible bananas with obscure origins, all that is really known about them is that they are in the subgenera/section Australimusa (as opposed to all other edible bananas which are from the subgenera/section Eumusa), and that they evoloved and were cultivated seperately from the other edible bananas. They may have been exclusively derived from Musa maclayi, but since they are so poorly known it has not been detirmined if other Australimusa species played a role as well. They must be cooked before eaten otherwise consumers usually get a stomache illness and it is reported that its consumers can also have redish urine after ingesting. They are normally very hard to get, especially in the US, however, David Constantine of Koba Koba Nursery has listed on his website ( http://www.kobakoba.co.uk) the Feh'i cultivar Musa 'Utafun' so I would recommend contacting him about that.
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Gabe, this is fascinating stuff! Unfortunately, kobakoba.co.uk is no longer working. I am going through the MGIS database to try to locate someone with access to F'ei seeds. Any ideas about where I might find some?
What I am thinking is finding a fertile wild species with drought/heat tolerance and with fewer than 5 seeds per banana, to cross with a tetraploid. Does this make any sense, or is my thinking flawed?
Thanks in advance for your reply.