A Cork plant scientist has commented on the discovery of cooking bananas growing in West Cork, saying that it might help us re-think the future of crops in this country.
Lecturer and plant scientist Dr Eoin Lettice spoke of his astonishment to hear two bundles of bananas were growing in a Cork garden, adding that the climate changes experienced this summer, including the hottest July on record, has led to a “knock-on effect” for the growth of plants.
The bananas, discovered in the garden of Rolf’s Country House in Baltimore, were the second ever growth on this particular plant, which had been planted 25 years ago.
Owner Friederike Haffner said the shrub, first planted by her mother years ago for the foliage, now has two large flowers, complete with bananas measuring up to 20cm long at present.
Ms Haffner described the discovery as “quite surprising”, before reflecting on the sub-tropical environment evident in the sheltered garden where the plant has thrived.
The wild bananas differ immensely from those we are used to eating, Ms Haffner explained, needing cooking time before they become edible.
“I told my husband he’ll have to come up with some recipes,” she added.
The fruit does have strong connections to Cork, some 4 million bananas arrive on ships from South America into the port of Cork every week.
Dr Lettice said this uncanny discovery may possess a learning curve for the future of Irish crops, adding: “There’s no doubt that in the next number of decades, if not already, we should be thinking about what we could grow in the future with a change in climate.”
Speaking about the surprising growth of these bananas, Dr Lettice revealed that the optimal conditions suitable for these plants to produce fruit had arrived, which does not necessarily mean the same conditions will persist next year.
“For this year at least, they’ve had the right set of conditions to produce bananas, which is exciting,” he added.
“Now, I doubt this means that Ireland will become a hot spot for growing bananas in the future but it’s an interesting kind of botanical anomaly,” he said.
“Do we need to move away from some of the crops that we traditionally grow to more novel crops? Maybe not bananas, but maybe bananas,” he said.
Raising the issue of which crops will survive in our changing climate, Dr Lettice said we may need to come up with an alternative to planting potatoes, “thirsty plants” that may struggle to survive during impending drought periods.
“We’ve had quite dry summers in the past where the growing of potatoes might become very difficult or at least without irrigation, leading to a situation of ‘what do you irrigate?’ Do you use the the available water you have for humans to drink or do you give it to farmers for crops and so on”.
“And where else but West Cork, where you’ve got this wonderful kind of Atlantic climate, so you probably just got the right set of conditions for the fruit to develop this year,” he added.
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