Notes on Banana Varieties in Hawaii

N. W. SIMMONDSl

KNOWLEDGE OF THE BOTANY of the bananahas been advanced considerably in recent yearsby the taxonomic researches of Cheesman(1947 et seq.). It is now clear that the ediblebananas have originated from three wild spe­cies of which one, Musa acuminata Colla, isby far the most important. This species be­longs to the section Eumusa of the genusMusa and is a variable (but constantly diploid)species with 2n = 22 chromosomes. Many edi­ble varieties have derived from it, some beingdiploid, some triploid (2n=3x=33). Musabalbisiana Colla is another diploid Eumusa,and it has contributed to the origin of ediblebananas by hybridity with M. acuminata.Upon triploid tultivars of such hybrid originwere founded the two Linnaean species Musasapientum and M. paradisiaca. (This statementincludes a modification of Cheesman's viewson the subject, but the point is immaterial forthe present purpose.) The third species (fol­lowing MacDaniels, 1947, rather than Chees­man, 1949) is M. troglodytarum 1., the fe'ibanana of the Pacific, perhaps more com­monly referred to as M. fehi Bert. ex Vieillard.I t is a member of the sectionAus tralimusa andis diploid with 2n=2x=20 chromosomes.The wild progenitor of this complex cultigenhas· not yet been identified, and, indeed, itmay well turn out that more than one wildform was involved in its origin. The sectionAustralimusa is still very poorly known taxo­nomically, and, until this deficiency is rem­edied, we are not likely to understand the vari­ability or origins of the fe'i banana, as it mayconveniently and noncommittally be called.

1 Banana Research Scheme, Imperial College ofTropical Agriculture, Trinidad, British West Indies.(Abbreviated in rhe texr as LC.T.A.) Manuscript re­ceived August II, 1953.

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Edibility, therefore, has had independentorigins in different sections of the genus(Cheesman, 1947, 1948; Dodds, 1946).

The wild bananas are all native to tropicalAsia and Australasia, and the edible deriva­tives must have had their origins somewherein that vast area. Malaya was almost certainlythe home of some edible Eumusas; the fe'ibanana presumably came from an area muchfarther south and east, in the islands wherethe wild Australimusas grow. Spread in cul­tivation must have been entirely by suckersafter the process of evolution of partheno­carpy had gone far enough to impose seedsterility (Dodds and Simmonds, 1948), andit must have been by this means that Hawaiireceived her cultivated bananas. Once seedsterility has been established in a crop plant(or rigorous vegetative propagation is I,Jrac­tised), somatic mutation is the only sourceof genotypic variability. Such mutation, orsporting, is well known to occur in bananas(e.g., see Baker and Simmonds, 1951; Sim­monds, 1953) and has been a significantsource of variability among the old Hawaiianvarieties as Pope (1926), by classifying theHawaiian varieties in groups, implicitly rec­ognised. Evidently the Hawaiian cherishedthe mutants as he cherished mutapt forms oftaro and cane.

In Hawaii, as elsewhere in the Old Worldtropics, two banana cultures are superposedone on the other: an indigenous pre-Europeanculture of bananas introduced, used, andnamed by the Hawaiian people; and a laterculture of varieties introduced in recent timesby Europeans. The two groups may conve­niently be called "Hawaiian" and "alien,"respectively, and with the foregoing remarksin mind we may proceed to an annotated list

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Banana Varieties in Hawaii - SIMMONDS

of the varieties that the writer was able toexamine in Hawaii. These remarks take theform of footnotes to Pope's (1926) list, withemphasis on observations that, in the lightof recent researches, seem to be botanicallyimportant.

HAWAIIAN VARIETIES

Popoulu. An acuminata-balbisiana hybrid(hereinafter abbreviated to AB) type, prob­ably triploid. Plant flushed with red andbracts curled (acuminata characters) ;flowerspale pink, ovules four-rowed (balbisianacharacters). Fruits short .and very fat, su­perficially disguising the true relationshipof the variety.

Maiamaoli. Botanically much like Popoulu,but plant pale in colour and fruits longerand more slender although blunt at thetip. Aeae (Koae) is a striped mutant; atleast five shades from near white to darkgreen could be detected, and a probablecase of striped to normal mutation wasseen. It is probably chimerical. Kaualauis perhaps a mutant with slightly persistentbracts, Eleele one with purple-brown stain­ing on sheaths and midribs. Only exten­sive collection and experimental compari­son could resolve the confusion ofvarieties,mutants, and names in this complex.

Iholena. Probably an acuminata edible type.The fruit has a very characteristic thickskin and pinkish flesh. Little material wasseen, and no probable bud sports wererecorded. .

Maiaoa CWild banana"). A strain of thevariable Musa acuminata, diploid, fullyseeded, and quite inedible. Apparently re­lated to the Malayan form of the species.The history of and reason for introductionof the plant to Hawaii is unknown. It haslong been in cultivation in the LCT.A.banana collections. The plant was onlyseen once (near Kona), and, since localknowledge of its existence had apparentlybeen lost, the rediscovery was of someinterest.

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ALIEN VARIETIES

Borabora. The fe'i banana. MacDaniels(1947) discussed the hypothesis that thefe'i banana was present in Hawaii in ab­original times but concluded (as did Pope,1926) that it was not brought to Hawaiibefore the early nineteenth century and wasnot one of -the plants cultivated by theearly Hawaiians.

The writer saw little material and no use­ful observations on variability could bemade. The chromosome number was con­firmed as 2n = 20 on two plants taken nearHonolulu (counts by K. Shepherd). It isnever known to be seed-fertile in Hawaii(St. John, personal communication), al­though it does occasionally set seed else­where in the PaCific (MacDaniels, 1947)and is always at least slightly pollen~fertile

(MacDaniels, personal communication).Presumably, the species is always ,diploid(though sometimes perhaps chromosom­ally abnormal, as is M. acuminata), and thevariable incidence of total seed sterility isto be related to a variable incidence ofsterility modifiers of parthenocarpy.

Cavendish, or Chinese. A triploid form ofM. acuminata and one of the most im­portant and widely cultivated banana varie­ties in the world. It is one of a complexseries of bud sports referred to collectivelyas the Cavendish group and treated ex­haustivelyelsewhere (Simmonds, 1953). Itis an important export variety in some areasand used to be of some significance inHawaii as such. It is highly susceptible toleaf spot (Sigatoka) disease, which is, how­ever, fortunately absent from the Territory.

Hamakua. A variety introduced from Hawaiito the LCT.A. in 1939 under this nameproved to -be identical with the Lacatanof Jamaica, etc. This is another memberof the Cavendish group, related by muta­tion to the preceding although utterlydifferent in general aspect. Numerous plantswere seen on the Kona coast of Hawaii,

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but search in the same locality for anothermutant form, the Robusta of Jamaica(Simmonds, 1953), was unsucc~ssful; thislatter variety is probably present in theTerritory, however, since it was once in­troduced to the I.CT.A. under the wronglabel, Manaiula, a name applied to a nativeHawaiian variety which it does not in theleast resemble. As Pope suggests thatHamakua is the same as the West Indianvariety Congo, it may be worth notingthat Congo in the I.CT.A. collections isidentical with Robusta, not with Lacatan.

Bluefi.elds, Gras Michel. (Pisang Embonof Malaya, etc., etc.) This is another edibletriploid Musa acuminata and the principalexport banana of commerce. It is muchfavoured as a dessert banana in Hawaii,but its cultivation is severely restricted bythe incidence of Panama ,disease to whichthe variety is highly susceptible. It is alsovery susceptible to leaf spot, and success­ful cultivation in the Caribbean area de­mands regular spraying.

Brazilian. An AB-type triploid; material in­troduced to the I.CT.A. in 1939 provedto be identical with a variety called Pomefrom the Canary Islands. The sometimesmisshapen male bud with a few persistentbracts just above it is characteristic. Thefruit is subacid and of poor quality; it haslittle to recommend it as a dessert banana(to a West Indian trained taste, at least),and its acceptance in Hawaii seems to bea good example of the power of need andhabit in influencing the demands of a mar­ket. It is resistant to Panama disease andto leaf spot.

Lady's Finger. As usual, this name is appliedindiscriminately to almost any banana withsmall fruits. The writer recorded it for twovarieties in Hawaii, namely: the Sucrier(of Trinidad, Honey of Jamaica, etc.), adiploid acuminata with yellowish, nonwaxyfoliage and small thin-skinned fruits; andanother variety called Ney Poovan (fromMadras) in the I.CT.A. collections, an

PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. VIII, April, 1954

AB-type diploid. The former is resistantto Panama disease but is very susceptibleto leaf spot; the latter is resistant to bothdiseases. Pope's remarks under the nameLady Finger seem to apply to NeyPoovan.

Apple. This is another unfortunate name,as it is commonly applied to several AB­type varieties having subacid fruits. In Ha­waii it was applied to a variety thought tobe the Silk Fig (of Trinidad, Apple ofJamaica, an AB-type triploid) but some­times also to Brazilian, a distinct althoughnot dissimilar variety (see above). InTrinidad, Silk Fig is susceptible to Panamadisease but resistant to leaf spot.

Ice Cream. Pope's description suggested avariety unrepresented in the I.CT.A. col­lections, and so it turned out. Plants wereseen at Honolulu and Kona, their scarcitysuggesting that this is not a particularlyfavoured variety. Plant small and denselystooling; peduncle glabrous; bud of hybridtype; bracts curled, red within to base; maleflowers red; fruit angular, grey-waxy, fleshsoft and sticky; ovules 4-rowed. An AB­type hybrid but perhaps nearer to M. bal­bisiana thin is usual among dessert bana­nas and, therefore, of considerable interest.Arrangements are in train to import it tothe I.CT.A. for detailed study.

Red, and its green bud-sport Green Red.As in the West Indies. The former is prob­ably chimerical, having a red skin over agreen core; various fleckings and stripingsare common.

Miscellanea. Several varieties named by Popewere not seen by the present writer but areworthy of some commeilt. The CommonPlantain is probably the same as theHorse or Horn Plantain of the WestIndies; it differs from other members ofthe plantain complex in having a quicklydegenerating male axis and comparativelyfew large horn-shaped fruits. Pope's de­scription of Largo suggests the popularWest Indian cooking variety called Blug-

Banana Varieties in Hawaii - SIMMONDS

goe (Grenada), Moko (Trinidad), White­house Plantain (Jamaica), etc. ColoradoBlanco is probably Green Red. Threeother varieties described by Pope cannotcertainly be identified at present; they areEslesno, Chamaluco, and Father Leo­nore, and all three are probably AB hy­br{ds. Father Leonore may be the sameas the I.CT.A. variety King. Pope's de­scription and photograph of Abaca un­questionably apply to M. balbisiana Colla,not to M. textilis Nee; this mistake hasoften been made and probably results fromthe fact that M. balbisiana is a commonrogue in Abaca fields in the Philippinesand has been widely distributed thence astrue Abaca. (Cheesman, 1949.)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writer's visit to Hawaii was made pos­sible by the generous gift of a grant-in-aidby the Carnegie Corporation of New York;his most sincere thanks are due the Corpora­tion and the numerous people who assistedhim in various ways while in the Territory.

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REFERENCES

BAKER, R. E. D., and N. W. SIMMONDS. 1951.Bananas in East Africa. I. Empire Jottr. Expt.Agr. 19: 283-290.

CHEESMAN, E. E. 1947. Classification of thebananas. Kew Bul. 1947: 106-117.

--- 1948. Classification of the bananas.Kew Bu/. 1948: 11-28, 145-157.

--- 1949. Classification of the bananas.Kew Bul. 1949: 265-272,445-449.

DODDS, K. S. 1946. Musa fehi, the indigenousbanana of Fiji. Nature [London] 157: 729­730.

--- and N. W. SIMMONDS. 1948. Gene­tical and cytological studies of Musa. IX.Jour. Genet. 48: 285-296.

MACDANIELS, L. H. 1947. A study of the fe'ibanana and its distribution with referenceto Polynesian migrations. Bernice P. BishopMus., Bul. 190. i+56 pp., 15 figs., 10 pIs.

POPE, W. T. 1926. Banana culture in Hawaii.Hawaii Agr. Expt. Sta., Bul. 55: 1-48, 17 pIs.

SIMMONDS, N. W. 1953. Variecal identifica­tion in the Cavendish group of bananas.Jour. Hort. Sci. (In press.)