DoctorSteve

Does anyone out there grow Haa Haa? If so what kind of temperatures can it take I live in zone 9b so I should be ok but I would love to know before I get one.

Also any pictures would be great, I can't seem to find that many of them. It sounds like a cool plant but there isn't that much information on it yet. That I can find anyway.

sunfish

I have one but don't know much about them.

Patty in Wisc

I never heard of Haa Haa!! Tony, could you post a pic of yours? Is it in the nana family?

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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

sunfish

I believe it is a Dwarf Iholena

Abnshrek

Previously I've only of Ha Ha..not Haa Haa I know what you mean Patty.. lol A Dwarf White Iholena in fact. :^) A striking plant which bears medium bunches of delicious fruit with orange flesh. A rare form of the Iholena Family. The plant is very stout and vigorous in appearance with an unusual ivory hue to the trunk and petioles. A dwarf form of White lholena, very stout, with fruit similar to the others. Average hardiness. Fruit turns yellow long before ripe. Tends to fall over with fruit on it, so definitely needs bracing. This is a dwarf stout plant with a yellow skin and orange flesh. Striking plant producing medium bunches of delicious fruit.

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pitangadiego

I had had one for quite a while. Does fairly well. Does choke sometimes. Struggles through the winter in San Diego, two nights at 38F and several in the lower 40's. Really needs warmer climate than I have, like most other Cavendish varieties. Haa Haa, Valery, Mahoi, and Zan Moreno seem a little more tolerant than Williams, Haa, Dwarf Cavendish, but almost not worth mentioning.

If you need shorter banana, Dwarf Namwah would be a better choice.

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sunfish

The Iholenas don't seem to handle cool wet conditions.

DoctorSteve

Well we don't live in a cool wet place but we do get lower than 38 degrees, about 6-7 degrees cooler on occasion. That is also only at night, the days are almost never in the 30's.

I don't need a short banana I am just looking for cool colored bananas. Yellow is fine but any other color is more interesting to me. If the flesh of the fruit is something other than white I am also interested.

mango_kush

pretty funny name for a naner

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Gabe15

The name is Hawai'ian and means "short", in modern Hawai'ian it's spelled Ha'a ha'a, pronounced with a glottal spot between each of the two sets of A's. It is actually extremely rare, I don't think there are any known plants left in Hawai'i. I saw some a while ago on the mainland and took a few photos, but at the time I did not know anything about Hawai'ian bananas so it didn't mean anything special to me, and I didn't know what to look for in it to know if it was true to type or anything, and my photos from that day are not detailed enough to tell now. It is possible the one on the mainland is the true form, and that it was introduced from Hawai'i sometime in the last 50 years or so when it was still around in Hawai'i. However, it's also possible that it's not the true form from Hawai'i, but a dwarf sport that occurred on the mainland. What is called 'Red Iholena'/'Red Iholene' is the true to type Hawai'ian cultivar 'Iholena Lele'. 'White Iholena'/'White Iholene' is a less colorful sport of 'Iholena Lele' that occurred on the mainland, so it's possible that a dwarf sport of the 'White Iholena' is what is going as 'Ha'a Ha'a' on the mainland. I would like to go back to Florida sometime soon to check this (and other things) out. There is not really a good solid reference that I know of, at least not a plant in Hawai'i, that it can be compared too. However it's also very possible that there are some in Hawai'i that I am just not aware of.

In any case, Banana Bunchy Top Virus along and corm borers with neglect has really taken a hard hit on the Hawai'ian traditional banana varieties and there are not too many left compared to what was around 200 years ago, even 50 years ago.

As for color, 'Iholena Lele' has a somewhat colorful inflorescence with a red peduncle and rachis, and the flesh is a light orange, but certainly no where near the really-orange fleshed bananas.

Here is the plant in reference at the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, FL.

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Rmplmnz

Gabe,
Drop me a note when you make it to Florida.
Chris

Bananaman88

I started to mention that about the glottal stops but wasn't 100% sure so I held off. So it is pronounced Ha ah, Ha ah, correct?

Rmplmnz

Iholenas are excellent bananas..

Anyone in Florida growing any of the Iholena species?

Anyone have a "large" Red Iholena corm they are interested in trading for Dwarf Reds (or others)?

I lost my matte of Red Iholenas this past winter...

DoctorSteve

Rmplmnz, how is the taste of the Iholene type bananas?

Rmplmnz

Excellent...nice thread:

red iholene and african rhino horn photos please

MediaHound

tlturbo (who no longer frequents) has some Red Iholena, I got mine when I was growing it from him. Might want to shoot him off a PM, he's within driving distance in 1 day and back for you. And anyway he might ship one off to you as well.

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sunfish

dana mastro

I love this species I tried getting one shipped from Hawaii but we tried getting a water sucker in stead of a sword sucker and did not mature all the way to be pulled so i lost it. but the real reason there so rare is because every time u get a sword it loses some color for some reason so you have to grow from seeds to keep it orange and true it kind of acts like a heirloom plant witch is extremely WEIRD for bananas so finding it wild would be amazing because that would mean nature did its course. if I could get seeds I wouldn't hesitate trying to grow one

Abnshrek

The one I ordered from Aloha Tropicals ended up being a Dwarf Orinoco..

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