Musa coccinea Seeds | Scarlet Banana
LATIN NAME: Musa coccinea
COMMON NAME: Scarlet Banana
Plant Profile
Scarlet Banana is a small, clump-forming banana, one to two metres tall, with slender pseudostems and long, paddle-shaped leaves. Its flower is the reason it is grown: an erect spike of brilliant scarlet bracts that opens in summer and holds its colour for weeks, with small yellow flowers tucked between the bracts and, later, a short bunch of small green fruit.
It comes from the forests of southern China and Vietnam, where it grows in damp, shaded gullies, and it is one of the few bananas that flowers when still small enough for a large pot. In the tropics it will bloom within a year of planting.
Science & Biotechnology
Musa coccinea is one of the species with an erect inflorescence, unlike the pendent flower spikes of the edible bananas, and its bright bracts are a signal to bird and bat pollinators in its native forest. It belongs to the section Callimusa, a group of mostly small, ornamental bananas from Southeast Asia.
The species has been used in breeding work as a source of ornamental traits, and its genome has been included in comparative studies of Musa. Like all bananas it is a giant herb rather than a tree, and each pseudostem flowers once and then dies, to be replaced by suckers from the base. In cultivation it is usually grown as a clump, and the old pseudostems are cut out once they have flowered.
Uses & Benefits
It is grown as an ornamental in tropical gardens and conservatories, where its scarlet bracts give a display that lasts far longer than most flowers. It also works as a patio plant in a large container, and in warm climates it naturalises in damp shade.
The fruit is small, full of hard seed and not worth eating, unlike the fruit of the cultivated banana. The plant’s value is entirely ornamental, though the leaves are used in some regions for wrapping food, as with other bananas. In Southeast Asia it is grown in pots at the edge of a terrace, where the erect flower spike can be seen from below.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed at 25 to 30 °C in a rich, free-draining mix, and soak it for a day first, since the seed coat is hard. Germination is erratic, from three weeks to three months, and only part of a batch usually comes up.
Grow the seedlings in warmth and bright, filtered light, with plenty of water in summer. Plant out in a sheltered, frost-free spot in rich, moist soil, or keep the plant in a large pot and overwinter it under glass at 12 °C or more. Feed regularly through the growing season and divide the suckers to keep the clump in bounds. In a cold climate the plant dies back in winter and reshoots from the rhizome in late spring, so mark the clump before it disappears.
Our Take
A compact ornamental banana with a flower that outlasts any bloom in the border. It wants heat and water, and gives a month of scarlet in return.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Scarlet Banana often pair it with these related subjects: