Markku Hakinen has recently released a paper about the Chinese M. itinerans entitled: "Musa itinerans (Musaceae) and Its Interspecific Taxa in China" This has excellent charts and photos to aid in identifying the specific variations between Musa itinerans var. itinerans; var. annamica, var, chinensis; var. guangdongensis; var. lechangensis and xishuangbannaensis. I am hopeful that the 'Gigantea' that I bought recently is in fact, Xishuangbannensis. I have two plants of it, so hopefully it will survive. It is noted in this research that xishuangbannensis is cold hardy and can tolerate seasonal frosts in the upper end of its range. (up to 1600 meters ASL) It is second in height only to ingens - growing to 12 m. Another interesting thing is that pups can be as far as 5 m. away from the mother plant. The corms can be a meter tall and half a meter wide to survive winter drought during the dry season, though it grows in moist, fertile soil much the same as ingens.
Here is a link to the article:
http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/china/nov...o-18-01-50.pdf