Mar 20 2013

Botanical Wednesday: What is that thing on the banana plant?

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What with all the bad weather around here, my wife is staying at an apartment near her workplace. And every time she does that, she starts sending me these kinds of photos. Should I be concerned?

(via petitchef)

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30 comments

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1

Paulino

20 March 2013 at 7:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

or enthused…
2

Onamission5

20 March 2013 at 7:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

LOL, it’s a flower! Apparently you can drink the nectar? Who knew.

http://mgonline.com/articles/banana.aspx
3

darwinharmless

20 March 2013 at 7:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“Should I be concerned?” Not unless it points up and she starts pole dancing. Even then, let her have some fun. What’s the harm?
4

markkernes

20 March 2013 at 8:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Triffid, isn’t it?
5

Dick the Damned

20 March 2013 at 8:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I dunno. But why can’t I see Kirk Cameron lying face-down on the branch above the bunch of bananas? Was he air-brushed out?
6

cm's changeable moniker

20 March 2013 at 8:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hm. In the wild, the bananas I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few) were wearing protection.
7

JohnnieCanuck

20 March 2013 at 9:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@#6

In the wild, CM?
8

katkinkate

20 March 2013 at 9:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Maybe she just wants to move to somewhere warm. Somewhere tropical, where bananas grow.
9

ThorGoLucky

20 March 2013 at 10:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

One can feel inadequacy by such plants.
10

Alexander the Good Enough

20 March 2013 at 11:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ve always found it amusing, ironic and somewhat disconcerting that we seem to be so into presenting our beloved with the, typically deracinated, sex organs of plants.

And ThorGoLucky, talk about feelings of inadequacy, consider this poor wretch. Based on the evidence presented, I trust that will never happen to our most manly, albeit liberated, host.
11

anuran

20 March 2013 at 11:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I dunno. She’s photographing big, thick, turgid genitals.
Sending you a message mebbe?
12

Azuma Hazuki

20 March 2013 at 11:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It just looks like a big curtain pull to me, or a bell rope. Like something George of the Jungle would pull if he were really wealthy and snooty and Ape was forced to, well, wear a monkey suit.
13

chigau (違う)

21 March 2013 at 12:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“concerned”
About what?
Please explain.
14

Randomfactor

21 March 2013 at 12:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

THIS atheist will probably be seeing that in his nightmares.

Cold, Comfort.
15

diotima

21 March 2013 at 2:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The common name for that long stem of bananas is a ‘hand’. No, I don’t know why but it seems appropriate reading some of the comments here. :-)
16

thumper1990

21 March 2013 at 5:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

What is that thing on the banana plant?

Oh! Professor! Professor! *waves hand in air*

…Is it Ray Comfort?
17

Antiochus Epiphanes

21 March 2013 at 6:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It’s a flower, sicko.
18

Lofty

21 March 2013 at 6:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

All this talk of Bananaman makes me think of Cold Comfort Farm.
“I saw something nasty in the woodshed”.
19

bbgunn

21 March 2013 at 7:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Now I have the The Banana Boat Song running through my head with a different meaning for ‘tally me banana.’
20

Ogvorbis

21 March 2013 at 7:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I look at that photo, the striping on the stalk, the pointy end, and wonder why the zebra is hiding in a bunch of banananananananananas.
21

janiceintoronto

21 March 2013 at 7:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It’s a dowsing pendulum. The Cavendish banana was bred not only to fit one’s hand and be Gods perfect food, it was also created to foretell the future.

Didn’t you read Ray Comforts peer-reviewed article on Bananamancy?
22

Cynickal

21 March 2013 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

No, it means you should brave the elements and pollinate her.
23

Elisabeth Griggs

21 March 2013 at 10:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A good opportunity to turn you onto the bold brave and talented science geek/artist Maria Sybilla Merian, who went off to Surinam in the 1700s to paint plants and pollinators. Bananas, too. Here’s some pictures

https://www.theantiquarium.com/maria-sibylla-merian
24

anuran

21 March 2013 at 10:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

#17 Antiochus Epiphanes
It’s a flower, sicko.

That’s what I said “big, thick, turgid genitals”
25

octopod

21 March 2013 at 4:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Man, maybe I’m just not enough of a botanist, but when I look at that thing I don’t think “sex”, I think “alien abduction”.
26

Furr-a-Bruin

21 March 2013 at 5:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

#22 Cynikal:

“What do we do now?”
“We wait for the bee.”

– Princess Libido and Ficus Pandorata, in the Quark episode “All the Emperor’s Quasi-Norms, Part I”.

Quark: All the Emperor’s Quasi-Norms, Part I
27

cm's changeable moniker

21 March 2013 at 5:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

JohnnyCanuck @#7, touché.
28

Kamaka

21 March 2013 at 6:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Onamission5 @ 2

I don’t know about drinking the nectar, but that flower IS for eating.

Yummm…
29

cattleya1

21 March 2013 at 6:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Bananas are functionally dioecious – the female flowers occur at the first part of the inflorescence – where the bananas form. When the females run out, the male flowers start – hence the long stretch of naked stem before the bud sheathes holding the remaining male flowers. Most cultivated bananas are sterile hybrids – mules. They produce fruits parthenocarpically from the female flowers which is why you never see real banana seeds in the fruits we get at the grocery. Real banana seeds are like bird shot. They are hard, black and look like off-round spheres about 2 – 3 mm in diameter.
30

Azuma Hazuki

22 March 2013 at 2:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsgqjcXgZy0

The one with the paper squeaky-thingy is Ray Comfort :)