Posted by: The Lorax in: ● June 12, 2009
A comparison of four commonly available types of Ecuadorean dessert banana. From left to right, these are: Seda (Silk Plantain, Cavendish type), Limon (we think this is Red Iholene), Maqueño (Gros Michel improved type), and Orito (Sucrier type). Bananas are a very diverse fruit, with hundreds of named cultivars remarkable for different sizes, shapes, colours, and flavours. My personal favourites are the Oritos, which last just two or three bites, and are sweet and firm. I find Seda bananas to be too mealy for eating out of hand, although they’re great for baking. Limons, which have bright pink flesh, are acidic with hints of mandarin and ideal for frying.
The Maqueño is a cultivar I’ve only ever seen in Ecuador - they were produced by crossing the Panama-disease susceptible ‘Gros Michel’ bananas, which used to be a staple of the export trade, with highly resistant Giant Plantains. The fruit of the Maqueño is dryer than a standard Cavendish banana, firm, and sweet without being insipid; the flesh is a pale peachy colour. The examples in this photo are smaller variants of the fruit, normally made available for smaller families; each finger in a typical hand of standard-sized Maqueños (normally destined for restaurant use) is about 10 inches long and weighs about a pound. These are one of the few cultivars that Ecuador does not export, although with their slow ripening time and resistance to bruising, they are ideal for the international trade.
Posted by: The Lorax in: ● October 4, 2008
Ensete ventricosum, growing at the gates of the Quito Botanical Gardens, Quito, Pichincha Province. Ensete are native to Africa, this one in particular to Ethiopia, where they are a valuable root crop. They are also among the tallest members of the Musaceae; this one was close to 13 meters, and dwarfed many other trees in the area. In Ecuador, Ensete are cultivated as ornamentals for their extreme height and showy flowers.
As a food plant, a single Ensete root provides more than 40 kg of edible starch, however the plant takes 4-5 years to mature and so plantings are normally staggered to ensure a reliable harvest. It is drought-tolerant (more so than grains) and prefers full sunlight.
Like all members of the Musaceae, propagation is by pups, although the inedible fruit of Ensete is seedy and the plant can also be propagated in this manner. However, since germination is finicky it is much easier to propagate by pups.
