It is human nature to organize and categorize things we interact with in our daily lives. It is also in our nature to generalize – this is especially true for plants, produce and general food items. We buy tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, peaches, onions, oranges and bananas. Not much thought is given to the varieties or cultivars that make up the product. The only widely grown produce consistently sold by variety name is the apple. You might prefer Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Fuji, Granny Smith or Pacific Rose. There is nothing wrong with selling generic produce, unless there is a specific fruit or vegetable with special characteristics that make it distinct, and for that you will need to ask for it by name.
Gardeners try to plant the best of everything. If a friend has a great avocado or tomato, we try to get that same variety or cultivar. If propagating by vegetative means, such as cutting, grafting or air layering, it is easy to get the same plant. If propagating by seeds, true breeding, self-pollinated crops are easy to reproduce. Nontrue breeding plants are nearly impossible to produce from seeds. In this case you look for the name of the plant you desire and search online and garden shops for the plant you desire. It’s easy, but only if everyone uses the same names.
To this end, every described plant – and every other described life form – has a formal binomial scientific name that is registered based on the International Code of Nomenclature guidelines. A binomial name consists of a two-part genus and species name and is usually italicized. If it is a cultivated plant, it will also include a variety or cultivar name. For example, the tomato’s scientific name is Lycopersicon esculentum L. Healani. The scientific name may also be followed by the name or its abbreviation of the person who named the plant and in the case of the tomato would be L for Linnaeus. Healani is the cultivar name of a well-adapted cultivar for Hawaii developed by the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Using the scientific name allows us to talk about the same plant worldwide. When coupled with the variety or cultivar name, identification can be specific to a single entity if everyone follows the rules.
In Hawaii, there is confusion in the identity of a garden favorite: the apple banana. As we all know, the banana is propagated by vegetative divisions of the growing plant. Tasting a banana from your friend and asking for a keiki is great for getting what you want, but what would you request if you had to purchase a banana plant? In Hawaii we tend to classify any sweet and tart banana as an apple banana – a generic name that specifically refers to taste.
A bulletin published in 1904 by the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, later to become part of UH Manoa, says this about the apple and Brazilian bananas:
“The Brazilian variety was introduced from Tahiti in about 1855 and was probably Pisang radjah or Pisang medii, the dessert banana of Java. The flower end of the fruit is drawn out into a beak. The skin is yellow and fruit tends to fall from the bunch when ripe. Plants are 25 to 35 feet tall. The apple banana was introduced to Hawaii from China in about 1868 by Mr. Afong. The fruit resembles the Brazilian, but without a distinct beak on the fruit end. The skin is thin and tend to split when fully ripen on the plant. If eaten prior to full ripeness, an astringent aftertaste is noted. Plants are 18 to 22 feet tall with green trunks and leaves, with a pinkish tint to the petiole edges.”
The apple banana is also known as Manzano, Manzana, GoSai Heong and other regional names. It has the dried floral pistol adhering the fruit which resembles a burnt match.
Today in Hawaii, the true apple banana is rarely grown. To compensate for the name confusion, people have referred to the tall Brazilian as the “tall Hawaiian apple banana.” A few decades ago a dwarf Brazilian was introduced to Hawaii and is currently known as “dwarf Hawaiian apple banana.” In Brazil, it is known as Santa Catarina Prata or Prata Ana.
Is there a lesson here for us to learn? Some of you think it’s no problem: you buy apple banana and you get what you expect. Problems arise when you don’t get what you want. Therefore, it is important to know what you are requesting, especially if dealing with regional names and having to wait months or years to know the results of your decision.
For more information on this and other gardening topics, visit the CTAHR electronic publication website at ctahr.hawaii.edu/Site/Info.aspx or any Cooperative Extension Service office. I can be reached at russelln@hawaii.edu.