Species · genus Musa · Musaceae

Flowering Banana

Musa ornata Roxb.

Growth habit

herbaceous tree

Native range

Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Myanmar

Reference · M. ornata

Cultivars of M. ornata

The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.

No named cultivars catalogued under M. ornata yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.

Guide

The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.

Musa ornata is a fast-growing herbaceous banana from the warm, monsoon-fed lowlands and foothills of the eastern Himalaya and Bangladesh, where it forms broad-leaved clumps. It wants warmth, steady moisture, and the kind of bright filtered light found just back from a sunny window. Water when the top inch of mix has dried, keeping it evenly moist in active growth but never waterlogged, as the fleshy pseudostem and roots will rot if left standing wet.

Care recipe

The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.

Care notes are early — not yet verified

Light: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Water: ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 4-9d)
Humidity: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Soil: ai:claude-fable-5
Care: ai:claude-fable-5

Light

Bright, indirect

Water

≈ every 9 days

Humidity

High

Temperature

16–30 °C

Soil mix

Rich, moisture-retentive loamy mix that drains well

Propagation

Division of offset pups

Fertilizing

Feed every 2 to 4 weeks in the growing season

Growth rate

Moderate

Flowering

Can bloom indoors with strong light and warmth

ToxicityAuthoritative · species

Non-toxic to cats & dogs

Banana (Musa) — ASPCA non-toxic to cats, dogs, horses. This is where toxicity lives: every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.

Reference images

Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.

No reference gallery yet

A few clear photos — habit, a mature leaf, a flower if it blooms — would give this page its eyes.

Add images

Sources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 4-9d) · ai:claude-fable-5 · ASPCA

Kept true by its growers

Every fact here carries its source. Grow Flowering Banana yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — is exactly what keeps this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.