# My striped (variegated) banana plant fruited **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282 "2009-12-23T03:58:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/1 "2009-12-23T03:58:26Z")
My Ae Ae banana plant bore some fruit. Here’s what the leaves look like. [![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/AeAE002.jpg) ](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/AeAE002.jpg) Even the bananas are striped! And they taste pretty good, too! [![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/temp031.jpg) ](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/temp031.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/2 "2009-12-23T04:01:48Z")
Ah! So cute! How big are the bananas? ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/3 "2009-12-23T04:30:52Z")
Oh, cool! You grow your own bars of Irish Spring! ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/4 "2009-12-23T04:35:31Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Ah! So cute! How big are the bananas? Thank you. They are a little bit smaller than the ones you get in a supermarket. The flesh is a light orange color, much different than the white flesh ones in the supermarket. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/5 "2009-12-23T04:44:06Z")
Are they ripe when the skin is green and cream? ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/6 "2009-12-23T04:50:31Z")
When they ripen, the skin turns a light yellow and the stripes almost disappear, but the yellow color is much different than the deep yellow you see on a ripe supermarket type. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/7 "2009-12-23T05:02:20Z")
Wow, lucky you! I was lucky enough to be at Biosphere 2 when one of our banana plants fruited – what a treat! Do you have a picture of the whole flower? They were one of the most science fiction-y plants I’d ever seen (excluding triffids, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/8 "2009-12-23T05:17:27Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Wow, lucky you! I was lucky enough to be at Biosphere 2 when one of our banana plants fruited – what a treat! > > Do you have a picture of the whole flower? They were one of the most science fiction-y plants I’d ever seen (excluding triffids, of course). I don’t have a photo of the flower phase, but here’s a photo of another “science fiction-y” flower that I grow. Its a jade vine. [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/jadevineapril152007plusvariegate-2.jpg](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/jadevineapril152007plusvariegate-2.jpg) [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/jadevineapril152007plusvariegatedbo.jpg](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/GarySiegel/jadevineapril152007plusvariegatedbo.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/9 "2009-12-23T18:42:52Z")
Love the banana. And I really _love_ the Jade Vine. I first saw one of those at the New York Botanical Gardens. I couldn’t believe the color of the flower. It was the exact color of the sky in one of the Van Gogh paintings at the museum where I was working at the time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/10 "2009-12-23T19:22:26Z")
Very cool banana! Are you somewhere warm? I got my gf a dwarf banana (zone 5, PA) and it is doing great in her sunroom, but no fruit yet. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/11 "2009-12-24T00:02:45Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Very cool banana! Are you somewhere warm? I got my gf a dwarf banana (zone 5, PA) and it is doing great in her sunroom, but no fruit yet. I’m in southern California, so the banana grows outside without any problem. Is this the first winter inside the sunroom for the banana? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/12 "2009-12-24T00:08:24Z")
So awesome. The Thompson and Morgan catalog is plant porn for me. Please order this plant and bloom it for us! [http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/gwr7338/1.html](http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/gwr7338/1.html) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-striped-variegated-banana-plant-fruited/522282/13 "2009-12-24T14:34:04Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > I’m in southern California, so the banana grows outside without any problem. > > Is this the first winter inside the sunroom for the banana? I bought the plant from a mail-order place (Spring Hill) this past spring. It was a tiny, bare root plant. My gf potted it up and it has been in the sunroom ever since. Growth was initially slow, but then it started growing nicely. It is about three foot tall now.