3 Types of Bananas that Females Were Not Allowed to Eat.

[Ms_Aloha_Nui]

Help....I went to a lecture last night at Bishop Museum. Dr. Lillian Aiona Abbott was the lecturer.

During her lecture she mentioned that there were about 70 varieties of banana that were brought to Hawaii but that females were permitted to eat only 3 of the 70 varieties. When asked she was not able to tell us which 3 these were. Does any one here know?

Mahalo for sharing....

[Adri]

I found a reference to women being able to eat two varieties of banana (in Hawaiian, though,) mai`a iho lena and mai`a popo`ula.

http://www.canoeplants.com/maia.html

I found another site that may reflect what your speaker was talking about:

http://webebananas.com/bvar-G-I.html

"All the varieties were kapu (forbidden) to woman except for three types. These types were mai'a hapai (pregnant banana), mai'a popo ulu (breadfruit-like ball shaped banana) and mai'a mahoe (twin banana). "

(yay Google!)