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"banana plant"


Hoody

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cool thank's. the one I have got has been VERY slow growing but all of a sudden it has had a shoot take off from the centre of the plant, growing approx 30cm in two day's?! Iknew they sent shoot's up but not that fast? Thort i remember hearing something about using these shoot's to start a new plant or something??? Might be way wrong?! Can some one confirm this??

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If you allow the emersed (floating) leaf to develop after a while you will see a point 100 - 150mm back from the leaf where a new plant may grow. If you snip the floating leaves off (leaving enough to still support the mother plant) some will develop plants at the end of the stalk. Best to allow floating leaves to develop and see if they produce plantlets by themselves.

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sweet! Thank's alot for that help. I think they are a very cool plant and would love to try and propergate some more. Are you saying to let the stem develop it's leaf, then wait to see if I can see a "point" develop and snip it just below this?? Cant believe how fast this stem is growing?! It's now curling around the surface of the water and has grown approx 10-15cm a day?! Think it's starting to develop it's leaf now. will keep you informed on my progress!

:hail:

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Under the right conditions this plant grows like a weed. I used to have it but got rid of it as it would take over the tank in 2 weeks. Not joking, it would almost completely cover the top of a 2400x900 tank in only 2 weeks. Some of the leaves grew to 200mm diameter. In only 2 months I had over a dozen new plants...

Tiger lotus is similar but grows at about half the speed so a bit more controllable. I also think tiger lotus is a nicer plant. If you find the nana plant is growing to fast or taking over to much you could try the lotus instead.

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As Warren says they can be prolific. They have two forms and the submersed form is rather attractive. The emersed or floating stage is what is starting on yours. I don't grow them as they tend to block the light from other plants. If you just let the plant develop a few floating leaves it may start producing new plants from that node while the leaves are still attatched and will therefore grow them faster. If you get too many floaters you can cut some and float them and they will usually produce young plants from the cut end, node or both. When a young plant forms and you replant it it will be in the smaller submersed form and you can keep nipping off any floaters it produces.

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The "bananas" are storage tubers. The leaves of this particular water lily die back in winter and release the tubers to fall to the bottom of the pond where they winter over and then root down and sprout new leaves in spring.

Unfortunately the English language seems to be short of words (or imagination) so anything the English People encountered on their voyages of "discovery" they namend after something at home.

So we have tea-tree in NZ which is a Leptospermum, then we have tea-tree in Australia, which is a Melaleuca.

Both have been used by Captn Cook to brew something resembling Black Tea (which is Camellia sinensis) which they had run out of.

Then they found "pine-apples" which supposedly resemble a pine cone and do NOT grow on pine trees! The French called these "Ananas" which is what the locals called them, rather than inventing a new set of names.

Even plants that have already Latin names and Local names (where they come from) have to be named after something else: "NZ Yams" is a prime example. Nothing to do with yams which is a tropical climber, but related to Oxalis. The tubers are not even remotely similar-looking. The mind boggles...

And then we have "plums" in every country the English ever visited: Kaffir Plums, Burdekin Plums and hundreds more - all of which have nothing to do with a plum tree, which is a Prunus...

And so the storage tubers of some of these water lilies have inspired the name of "water banana"... go figure.

I HATE COMMON NAMES !!! :roll: :roll: :roll:

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When my Samoan rellies turned up and got introduced to NZ yams they were a bit speachless.

Haha, I can imagine as yams needs to be the nice long one to give "status" to a feast. Looks very male .... Compare that to the little maggots people call "NZ Yams". They must have thought you are joking LOL - Great face losing material! 8)

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