Horticulture project leads to dramatic boost in Water Banana propagation

Posted: 3 Jan 2025

Living Rainforest celebrates successful propagation of unusual and little-understood “Water Banana” plant

Water Bananas at The Living Rainforest Dec 2024 — Water banana plants are thriving in The Living Rainforest’s tropical glasshouses in Hampstead Norreys, Berkshire

Horticulturists at The Living Rainforest are helping to improve humanity’s understanding of how to grow an unusual and little-understood aroid plant from Madagascar, the water banana (Typhonodorum lindleyanum Schott). The water banana is the only known species in the Typhonodorum genus, which is part of the Araceae family containing around 3,750 known species across 114 genera.

A special project by horticulturist Chloe McGiveron has led to a dramatic increase in the centre’s propagation success rate, and helped establish multiple new generations of seedlings at the West Berkshire eco-attraction. Experimenting with different growing media revealed that floating seedlings typically do much better than submerged ones. She refers to this half-jokingly as the “floaty-sinky test”. McGiveron shared the details in a recent article in the International Aroid Society Newsletter (December 2024).

“I’m really happy with what I’ve learnt about growing water bananas,” McGiveron said. “Now 90% propagation success is common.”

The Living Rainforest’s passion for water bananas goes back almost a decade. Inspired by a 2016 visit to the Seychelles National Botanical Garden in Mahe, chief horticulturist Peter Clark sourced some water banana seeds after returning to the UK. Three seedlings eventually matured successfully and were put on public display in a small pond in the rainforest glasshouses in 2018.

Sadly, however, one of the three transplanted seedlings later died after being damaged by the Rainforest’s large, free-roaming yellow-knobbed curassow, Luigi. In response, to help protect against damage from free-roaming animals (including Luigi the curassow and other birds, and Cinnamon the two-toed sloth), the horticulture team has since learnt to protect the delicate seedlings by planting them strategically near mature plants to minimise disruption.

Water bananas occur in swampy water-logged environments which support discrete ecosystems. Because of their size and relative rarity, they are often viewed as an indicator species. The loss and or destruction of Typhonodorum can signpost a wider and more significant threat to this semi-aquatic ecosystem.

With the species now thriving at The Living Rainforest, a new water banana display was recently created in the centre of the main pond for visitors to enjoy year-round.

Luigi in Rainforest — Disruptor Alert! Luigi, a free-roaming yellow-knobbed curassow, damaged one of the delicate water banana seedlings when they were first put on public display (Photo credit: Becky Bennett)

Water banana Seychelles NBG 2016 PC 3 — Water bananas at the Seychelles National Botanical Gardens - Chief horticulturist Peter Clark was captivated by these striking plants he visited in 2016 (Photo credit: Peter Clark)

water banana germination test Chloe McGiveron — “Floaty Sinky Test”: Substrate tests revealed that floating seedlings, on the right hand side of the tubs, germinated far better than the seedlings submerged in water (Photo credit: Chloe McGIveron)

Chloe McGiveron and water banana plants at The Living Rainforest — Horticulturist Chloe McGiveron tending to the water bananas at The Living Rainforest centre (Photo credit: Chloe McGiveron)

Background notes

Water bananas reach up to 4m in height, thrive in marshy habitats and are thought to be pollinated by beetles, flies and ants. The Living Rainforest’s specimens are pollinated by ants.
Although they look superficially similar to Banana plants, the species are not related.
In 2016, The Living Rainforest’s chief horticulturist Peter Clark visited the Seychelles National Botanical Garden on Mahe island. He was struck by the architectural beauty and prehistoric look of the mature water banana plants growing there, and inspired to introduce them to The Living Rainforest on his return home.
The Living Rainforest has one of the largest collections of aroids (Araceae or Arum family) in Europe, ranging from the Flamingo flower (Anthurium andraeanum) commonly found at high street florists, to rare and threatened species such as Anthurium spectabile and Anthurium pedatum. The Living Rainforest has at least 142 aroid species, including 49 Anthurium species.
The Typhonodorum genus is believed to be closely related to the Peltandra genus, although Peltandra is only found in North America and there don’t appear to exist any closely related genera on the African mainland. While no fossil evidence exists to link the two genera, scientists posit that both originated from a now-extinct genus in Africa.