If Live Gives you Bananas, Make ’em Orange

When I first read the 2010 paper describing the discovery of an orange-flowered Musella (dwarf yellow banana), I was hopelessly hooked, and my heart filled with lust. Hanging out at 4,000′ elevation in China’s Sichuan province was a previously undiscovered population of only 130 orange-flowered plants, compared the more typical yellow. When you have grown as many plants as we have, plant lust is pretty much a thing of the past, but this was different. I immediately set out on a non-stop, decade-long worldwide search, which resulted in more dead ends than trying to navigate a poorly designed shopping center parking lot.

Finally, in 2020, an acquaintance in China came through, and friends who were botanizing in China, picked us up a plant that was grown for us, and navigated the permitting process required to get them back to the US. We spent the first few years, trying some risky techniques to induce our plant to offset, before it went into the ground. Finally with a backup in hand, it was time to trial the plant outdoor for winter hardiness. Since 2024, our plant has thrived in our in ground trials, and has finally rewarded us with a first flower this month. We have christened our clone, Musella rubrobracteta ‘Sunrise’.

Although the original publication published this as a subspecies of the common dwarf yellow banana, Musella lasiocarpa, we are confident that this actually deserves species status. Although it’s closely related, we feel the distance of six miles from any populations of typical Musella lasiocarpa, the growth habit, foliage, and flowers are all significantly different enough to elevate it to species status, as Musella rubrobracteata. The new plant grows significantly larger than typical Musella lasiocarpa, with foliage that reaches 4.5′ long x 18″ wide. Below is a leaf comparison photo we took last summer with typical Musella lasiocarpa on the left, and the new Musella rubrobracteata, on the right. Now, we just need to find a willing tissue culture lab to propagate this, so it can be shared far and wide.

Musella lasiocarpa (l); Musella rubrobracteata (r)