Tog Tan

As for this thread, I had no intention of hunting down the Musa violascens. I got up very early this morning to see an aborigine village head who is located on the foothills of the Western central highlands. My main purpose was to get him to collect a big leaf spotted Dracaena for my professor friend in Thailand who wants it for breeding. Currently this plant is undescribed. Somehow, our conversation turned to wild musa and he showed me a couple of plants in the wild. Joke of the day? When I asked him what the aborigines call this plant, he pointed to me, laughing - Pisang Tok! I almost fell down laughing too!

They are very scarce in this area according to him and we only found 3 plants with small pups. As they are rare here, I did not collect any. I will keep coming back to photograph their progress as they flower. I couldn't get a pix of the flower on one of the plants as it was too high up. We had to cut the flower and fruits down for photo purposes. The big plants here grow to about 9ft in p-stem height. I suppose they will get smaller when kept dry or in a pot.

Here, these plts seem to like very wet, waterlogged areas. It was not a joy getting to the other plants because of the blood donation campaign run by the local leech association.

I will keep this thread open for those who are interested in this species. I was very annoyed when I searched the net and can't find a even 1 image of this species. I was notified by another aborigine about an area 'infested' with this species. I will find the time to go there and get pix back for you guys.

Between this and the much hyped about Musa gracilis, I prefer the Musa violascens for its foliage and flower size. Currently I am growing a couple of plants from the north given to me my one of my aborigine friends. At this point, some of you may wonder about my association with these people. The aborigines or Orang Asli are a very nice bunch of folks and I have been with them for more than 10 years hunting for all sorts of reptiles. I learnt a lot from them in their jungle craft.

Hope you like the pix. Cheers!


I managed to get a top pix of the plant as the bottom is obscured by all sorts of plants. I really love the beautiful foliage - a nice mid greed semi gloss top and bottom. It is a young plant about 4ft in p-stem height.


This is a close up of the p-stem. See how clean looking it is.


Detail of the undersurface of the leaf. The mid rib is yellow.


Here's a pix of the flower bud and immature fruits. Flower is almost 10 inches!


Ah... Here's the main difference between the M gracilis and M violascens. As you can see from the close up, the fruits of the M violascens is double row in the hand. For M gracilis, it's one row only.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

Hey(Pisang) Tog, what does "Orang " mean?( I'm guessing people or person) I only ask because of a lifelong interest in cryptozoology and have heard of "Orang Pendek" which is supposedly Indonesian for short person.

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Chironex

Great shots, great finds! You live in banana wonderland it seems. So cool.
Thanks for posting the different taxonomic characteristics, that's real good stuff to know.

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Scot

Tog Tan

Yep, Orang = people/person and Asli = Natural/Original. So Orang Asli means the original people of the land. And you my cheeky friend, you are known as Orang Puteh here aka White Man!

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

I won't put in print what this sounds like in Spanish but, here's a clue : I only know the bad words and the few things lorax taught me when I went banana shopping! Still it seems to fit!..........cheers.

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bigdog

Hey Tog, when I went to Thailand earlier this year, our group frequently heard locals saying "Farang, farang," LOL. We had been told that would happen though, and that it wasn't quite derogatory, just a word for "foreigner."

Nice that you found another wild species! Certainly does look a lot like Musa gracilis. I really didn't know that either of those species grew that large! Thanks a bunch (pun intended)!

Frank

Tog Tan

Yo Frank,
Shouldn't you be half drunk now with Christmas a couple of hours away?

Farang means Guava in Thai. It's white inside. Now you know what kinda fruit you are!

Another term here for foreigners is Mat Salleh. Nothing degrading but refers to people who act foreign.

Yeah these two species of Callimusa are almost the same except for the fruits which Gabe was trying to verify with me on the M gracilis thread. The way they differ in geography is that M violascens is found on the Western side of the peninsular whereas M gracilis is found on the Eastern side. These two areas are separated by the Main Range all the way from the top to the south, thus, there is hardly any chance for them to overlap and hybridize.
The West is wetter and protected by the Indonesian main islands whereas the East is exposed to the South China Sea. Their climate is very different and maybe that's why the M gracilis grow smaller there. The lot I found were at the foothills of the Main range where it is wetter so the plants get big.

I feel there is so much more for me to learn even though there are only 2 species of Musa and 2 species of Callimusa here. I am not stopping here but I will get specimens from all the parts of the country. Of course I will try to find the ultimate specimen for each of the species with the nicest flower.

Since 25th Dec is a holiday, I may go hunting again tomorrow down Central south. Will keep you posted.

Happy holidays!

Tog

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Chironex

I still wanna know the meaning of Pisang Tok and why it made you laugh.

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Scot

Tog Tan

Yo Scot,

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Pisang Tok sounds like Pisang 'Tog' depending how one pronounce it!
Most locals can't pronounce the 'g'!

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

I'm going to reveal exactly how big a geek I am now... The Ferengi race of Star Trek fame take their name from the word Farang, which can be extended to mean "foreigners."

Chironex

Thanks Tog, grab at least 2 of whatever you find. I got the TC lab ready to crank.
Send me one corm and I will send back 4 or more of them to you.

Merry Christmas to you and yours my friend.

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Scot

Tog Tan

Here's a beauty! The Darkest Color found to date.


What a Christmas day for me! I got up early and decided to some hunting down South central and this time I found an area crazy with M violascens. I am sure you guys are bored with my finds and making it as though nothing is rare in the 'naner world anymore!

Lucky me this time I found a couple of plants in bloom and got a pix of a superb specimen. The corm was too big to do any digging, so I collected a couple of seedlings from around there. I went to a few other adjoining sites and even managed to find some spotted leaf seedlings.

Growth habit
In this area, the plant's growth habit is very interesting as that many clumps grow very close to each other giving the impression that they are a single clump.
Maximum size observed is about 9+ft in p-stem height. They are mainly found in very wet areas and some grow in permanent water lots. The color variation of this area is that the p-stem is darker in color. Size for size when compared to a typical M acuminata, the M violascens is much bigger and taller.

Seedlings
They are found sporadically near mature clumps. Size wise, they are smaller than M acuminata in terms of size/age. I found very few maroon spotted seedlings here. In some areas, only green ones were found.

Fruits
I saw about 15 plts with fruits. Form wise consistent, they are slightly angular and the size varies from short to long. Color is consistent. The fruits are very hard and some seem to be eaten by animals. In it, the pulp is like styrofoam.

For more pix see my Photo Gallery - Musa violascens

This pix was taken from a sheer cliff. The clumps are down in a creek with a stream flowing through.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

Merry Christmas O.M. ,not getting bored at all, these posts and pictures are keeping my inspirations high.
Christmas morning here has been a combination of brilliant sun(I forgot what it looked like) and high 40 degree temperatures that after working in bitter cold the past week feels warm and I am outside for short periods in just a T-shirt along with the snow cover. A white Christmas and warm weather. The best of all things.
I am still laughing inside over "Pisang Tok" it's on my wish list. Talk soon, Bob.

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Tog Tan

Hi Bob,
Aren't you supposed to be celebrating and half drunk now? So, I am the only buddy you have now...
Are you talking 40F or 40C? It's still raining like hell here and I have been donating blood like crazy to the leeches, especially today.
Hey, my word stays, I will get you a pup each of the following;
Kluay Hom Thong - Kluay Hom Thong Short Fruit - Pisang Ambon - Pisang Tok.
Howzat? You have to wait awhile for the cultivars to pup and then I will make it a point to get the paperwork done and have them shipped to you. My treat all the way.
I am supposed to get the Pisang Ambon soon. I have located someone growing it in some small kampong near my nursery.

Enjoy your holidays buddy!

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

bigdog

Those are amazing pictures, Tog! 9 feet (3 meters) of pseudostem? That's a full meter taller then the original description!
Perhaps this needs revisiting by taxonomists...Markku? Thanks so much for these pictures, Tog. There really aren't many pictures to be found on the net of these species in habitat, so they are invaluable!

lorax

Tog, do you mind if I work up an article for the magazine based on your descriptions and photos?

Tog Tan

Milady, your wish is my command...

I will work on all the 4 known species found here in M'sia for you. I am still gathering materials for the Musa acuminata subsp malaccensis thread and will be visiting a couple more sites for the M gracilis. You see this darn plant have a at least 2 color variants for its flower. I will not rest until I know what is in my homeland

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

Thankee, kind sir...

Tog Tan

Frank,
I think Musa's will grow like crazy when given the right conditions. So far these two seldom talk about related species have hardly any proper documentation. Perhaps they were first discovered in the drier forest. You see the places I found them were very, very wet and there's tons of rotting plant materials (compost) for them to feed on continously. They are away from full sun, so they have to stretch. Remember you telling me about the Musa velutina which grew to 10ft at your friend's place? Same situation, I guess.

Here's a good one... When I first sent you a pix on your personal email with a bunch of fruits to identify, well.... I took another look at the pix a couple of days ago and it's a M violascens! Darn plant was one of the earliest ones I found and I didn't realize what it was! It was smack in the middle of the forest growing next to a stream.
'Rare' stuff are not hard to find if you can figure out their habitat. I used to get all the rare reptiles all the time. This is the same for certain genus of plants I want to find, figure it out and I find them 90% of the time. No secrets here. Where I am hunting now are my old reptile hunting grounds.
Cheers

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

Shouldn't you be sleeping Old Man? ! And no I'm freinds with Frank and Lorax too! It's 40F here ,I should be more conscious of that! Have been either outside enjoying a cigar or taking advantage of the weather to walk my dogs(Rottweiler and a Swiss mountain dog) through the snow in the woods for a few miles. Pups sound great, let me know what I can find for you.
Now I'm heading out to overindulge in food and drink..........cheers

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