Michelia figo Seeds | Banana Shrub
LATIN NAME: Michelia figo
COMMON NAME: Banana Shrub
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Banana Shrub, Michelia figo is a dense, evergreen shrub in the magnolia family. Young plant grows into a dense, tufted clump, reaching twenty metres or more. Give it full sun and deep, fertile ground. Given room and time, it reaches roughly Twenty metres. Put simply, this is a rewarding species for anyone willing to give it a suitable spot.
Science & Biotechnology
Research touching on Michelia figo ranges from the botany of the magnolia family to practical horticulture, including seed handling, propagation and the selection of superior forms. Banana shrub has a real and distinguished place in the research. Species like this one find a second career as research material, especially in propagation and breeding work.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Banana Shrub earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Ecologically, banana shrub is a generous shrub of the garden. Its small, fragrant, creamy-white to purple-edged flowers feed bees and many insects, and its fine, glossy, evergreen crown gives a fine, dense cover and a shelter to birds through the year. For a grower, banana shrub is a rewarding and treasured shrub, and for a gardener it brings a small, fragrant, creamy-flowered shrub to warm garden. Once it has settled, the workload drops to almost nothing.
Michelia flowers are among the most fragrant in existence, perfuming temples and yielding absolute for fine perfumery; in southern Asia the flowers and bark have folk medicinal records.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Banana Shrub under ordinary good conditions. Sow evenly over the surface and cover lightly into a loose, well-drained seed compost, water in gently, and keep the sowing in full sun with steady moisture. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.
Our Take
Given the right start, Banana Shrub is a long-term garden companion. The essentials are simple: full sun, drainage and patience while it establishes.
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