At the birthplace of the social reformer Begum Rokeya in Pairaband, Mithapukur upazila, Rangpur, a rare banana known as dhum kola has survived for 181 years. Citing the Rokeya Memorial Centre, Barta24 reports that her father, Zahiruddin Muhammad Abu Ali Haider, brought the plant from Germany around 1845 and planted it at the family home in Khorddo Muradpur village.
Long neglected, the plant kept itself going by propagating naturally. Two plants now stand against the wall beside the centre's auditorium; one is bearing fruit and the other is growing. Visitors come every day to see the fruiting plant.
A mature dhum banana plant grows to about 7 feet, with a bunch about 4 feet long carrying more than a hundred fruits near its base. The bananas are small, curved like a bent thumb and one to one and a half fingers long. Each holds about 16 black, pea-sized seeds, and the plant spreads from seed.
Agriculturist Abid Karim Munna, the officer in charge of the memorial centre and a deputy director of Bangla Academy, said it is essentially an ornamental banana that fruits once the plant is a year old. Raising it from seed takes a long time, so the centre will contact the relevant institutions about propagating it through tissue culture.
The centre has already given dhum banana plants to the Rangpur Horticulture Centre, Rangpur Cantonment, Bangladesh Agricultural University and the Tajhat Museum. Rafiqul Islam Dulal, general secretary of the Rokeya Smriti Sangsad, said he had heard from elders that women in the area once regarded it as a sacred banana plant.
Students Shahadat Hossain Arif and Mehedi Hasan, who came from Muradpur to see it, said they were amazed that a plant brought from Germany 181 years ago still survives. Keeping such rare plants alive and sharing their seedlings helps preserve the diversity of the country's fruit trees.
Photo: Yercaud-elango / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Barta24
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