Bumble bee visiting flowers
Musa velutina
Description: An easy to grow Banana which can be grown and flowered in a large pot. Left to it's own devices on the ground and in ideal warm humid climes it can grow to about 10ft tall. The stems and petioles are coloured light red and so also the leaf mid-ribs. Bright sunlight will enhance this colouration more. However, mature leaves change to a dull colour with age. Readily produces offshoots. This is one banana that will flower and fruit even when grown in a container. The inflorescence is very attractive with deep pink coloured bracts. Fruits when formed are bright pink and covered with soft downy hairs. The fruits produce abundant seed.
Habitat: Northeast India, Assam. Now grown all over the world and reported to be cold tolerant.
Ethnobotany: Not known.