shopgirl2

There is in Puerto Rico a short type of banana plant. Its leaves are red, some are green. We used to called them pig bananas because they were fed to the pigs. Consumption by humans was okay but they were very rich in protein causing stomach distress such as constipation. I think if I remember correctly the pulp of the fruit was a light orange color. good tasting also. Could only eat it when the banana skin became black.

However, the plant is beautiful. We used to call them "guineo Montecristo".

I would like to know the actual cultivar name. It is a beautiful plant and I surely would like to buy one.

Regards to all and thank you.

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Orinoco by the sunlight.

magicgreen

interesting shopgirl , thanks Magicgreen

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

CookieCows

That sounds very interesting! We raise our own pigs off and on.

Deb

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Bananaman88

Sounds a lot like 'Dw. Red' to me. It has reddish skin that, from what I understand, the skin needs to be almost black before eaten. Fruit color is like what you described as well.

STEELVIPER

Sounds like a red.Or a Cuban red. Could be one of many kinds of red bananas.

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inkcube

is the fruit red? the el guineo 'Montecristo' i have seen have all been yellow and the papers i have about production do not refer to guineos having red fruit. my guess is they are Jamacan Lacatans, which was a fruit grown by Chiquita before switching to Grand Nain.

Michael_Andrew

Ok I found a picture of that pig banana:

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...pn7V7/610x.jpg

chong

Michael,
You got me on that one!

chong

According to Going Bananas, the Jamaican Lacatans are similar to Philippine Lakatan, and the only difference is that the Jamaican is a shorter plant.

The original Chiquita, if I remember correctly, was the Musa Gros Michel, whose fruit is similar to the current Cavendish in color, size, and texture.

shopgirl2

hehehe, really funny. hehehe

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Orinoco by the sunlight.

john_ny

In the 70s and 80s, I spent some time in St. Lucia. They had lots of bananas there, but they were all shipped to the U.K., rather than the U.S. I asked some of the locals about them, and they told me they were Gros Michel. They also said that people in Great Britain preferred a slightly smaller banana (Gros Michel) than people in the U.S. (Gran Nain)

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John

Caloosamusa

Check out Chongs photo gallery. He's posted a picture of the fruit and it does not seem to a Fe'i.

Chironex

It has me wondering whether the Montecristo and Guineo Montecristo are one and the same. These are another name for the Jamaican Lacatan. These can grow quite tall, so perhaps it is a Dwarf Jamaican/Cuban Red. They must be nearly black before they are ripe just as Brent said. These are sub-species of Cavendish bananas.

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Scot

chong

Monte_Cristo banana internationally is the Bungulan, whose photos I posted earlier, and is called Kluai Hom Khieu/Kiau in Thailand, Pisang Ambon Lumut or Pisang Masak Hijau in Malysia and Indonesia, Hamakua in Hawaii.

It gets interesting when you try a search for various banana cultivars from Puerto Rico. Guineo Montecristo will bring you to 2 nursery sites, and each site has a different description of this.

One says that Guineo Montecristo is the same as Cavendish Var Jayuya in response to my enquiry - " JAyuya y Monte Cristo son lo mismo...solo que mi cv vino de Jayuya."

The other says that it is red when green(unripe) and yellowing with traces of red when ripe. This is more commonly known as "Morado" in South America and the Caribbean, and apparently hails from Monte Cristi area.

Then a third large nursery in PR that specializes in tropical fruit trees and palms, describe one of their banana variety as " 'Martinico' Gigante Gros Michel Banana". It goes further to describe the fruit as "It is a large, tall plant bearing long bunches of large yellow (sic) fruits. It produces excellent fruit with a slight sub-acid taste. The fruits are green (sic)when ripe." If the latter description (green when ripe) is the intended one for this particular variety, then it is possibly the one internationally known as Monte Cristo.

Chironex

Well, I think I have all the bases covered. I have Montecristo, Morado and Enano Gigante as well as Gigante blanco (I think). Plus I have all kinds of Reds. Dwarf Jamaican/Cuban, Green/Red, Lacatan, Rose, and probably some others that don't come to mind right now.
Still trying to find a Sartre though. That's one that's supposed to be one of the most heat tolerant.

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Scot