kcj1219

Hey everyone!

First post on here! I just bought an ice cream banana plant and had it shipped. I'm trying to make sure I received the right plant. By pictures I've seen it looks right but I've noticed a red border around the outside of the leaves. Some pictures show a red border but some do not. Does ice cream bananas have a red border around the outside of the leaf?

Thanks!

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KJ

Kostas

Welcome to Bananas.org!

Ice Cream has a dark pink border around the edge of its leafs. This is not unique to ''Ice Cream'' though,some other varieties have edging of the same color as well.

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Richard

Welcome! Tell us a little more about yourself here: Member Introductions - Bananas.org

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palmtree

Welcome to the fourm! I never really noticed a red margin on the outside of my ice cream banana leaves. I'll have to check that out. Good luck!

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kcj1219

Does Orinoco have any pink border?

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KJ

sunfish

Just took a look at a few bananas. There is a red border on Orinoco,Namwah,Ice Cream ? Kru. Only on young plants

ron_mcb

i can look a several small pups of different varieties and see red borders around the leaves..not a good way to id them.

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kcj1219

Well thanks everyone for your input! Well it was bareroot when I got it and decided to put it in a pot to start it out (I'm awaiting for some sunflowers to kick the bucket to plant it in a certain spot) Its put out a couple of new leaves now and I'm convinced its an ice cream. The petioles are a chalky dark green blueish color. Very distinct from anything else.

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KJ

Nancy

Gee, my ice cream bananas are thoroughly green. (I got them from a very reputable nursery, so I'm confident that they aren't some other variety.)

kcj1219

I'm convinced its an ice cream. I did get it from a dependable nursery but was just making sure when I first recieved it because I never grew one. I've looked at many pictures including yours Nancy and it looks just like it.

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KJ

Darkman

My Goldfinger has red edges.

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venturabananas

I doubt you (or most anyone) would be able to tell a small Ice Cream from many other bananas with ABB genetics. You probably got the right thing, but given what we've heard from members here about mix ups at Agristarts, the source of banana plants at many nurseries in the US, just because your local nursery is good doesn't mean their source is 100% reliable. You'll probably never know for sure what you have until you get fruit from it. Welcome to the murky world of banana ID!

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kcj1219

It is definitely a murky world Ventura. I'm finding that out real quick! I still haven't identified the two that I bought from a nursery mislabeled Musa Siam Gold. They looked like orinoco or ice cream. They were both together, obviously two 4 ft pups that the mother was cut to the ground. It also had a small pup with a bright pink border and stem. I removed that pup and potted it. Then I cut the old mother from the corm for more room and put that part of the corm in a pot. Now it has new shoots coming out. And guess what? These pups aren't coming up with any pink on them at at all! That just added to the mystery.

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KJ

venturabananas

KJ, banana ID is indeed murky. As someone who teaches taxonomy, albeit of fishes, before knowing anything, I thought it would be pretty easy to distinguish different bananas. For some varieties, that might be the case if you have a plant that has flowered and produced fruit. For others, you'd be lucky just to get it down to subgroup. Gabe has written a good description of the complexities of banana taxonomy that you can find on this website if you search a bit. For people like him, who have seen a lot of different bananas, banana ID is easier than for relative novices like me, but with 1000 or so varieties, there are a lot of cultivars that even the experts would have a hard time identifying.

The fact that environmental conditions can change characteristics that seem like they should be important (like color), certainly confuses the issue. For example, sometimes my ABB varieties (e.g., ice cream, orinoco, namwah) have pink midribs and sometimes they don't.

If you are interested in learning how to distinguish different edible varieties, the following document by Jeff Daniel's is the best one I've found on the internet. You have to download each part separately (and ignore that fact that it looks like you have to pay for it). It is focused on South Pacific varieties and so it leaves a lot out, but it has good info on separating AAA varieties from AAB, from ABB, etc.; and gives important traits that help distinguish some varieties within these groups.

Illustrated guide to the identification of banana varieties in the South Pacific | ACIAR

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ImperialExotics

Interesting thread.....

I boo boo'd and asked this question in the wrong forum, and promptly edited it


Anyway..... I have several ice creams, ALL have that nice pale creamy pastel color, but some have no red edges, some do.

All are about the same size. From different sources.

It sounds like I should just presume they are all Ice Cream....?