Lessard 1992

Lessard, W. O. (1992). The Complete Book of Bananas. Published privately in the United States. ISBN 0 9633161 0 9


W. O. (Bill) Lessard was a banana grower and nurseyman and a pioneer in the landscape and garden use of the plants.  The book he published privately in 1992 after "an extensive 25 year fascination with bananas" has been treated as authoritative by many.  The photographs and pen portraits of the 50 types of banana mentioned in the book are testimony to his practical growing experience.   But Lessard is less than convincing when he writes about the biology and taxonomy of the plants and sometimes he is plain wrong.

Lessard quotes the first edition of Norman Simmonds' book on bananas as the source for the information that "bananas are divided into two sections, the Australimusa and the Emusa (sic)".  In the context in which Simmonds was writing, a book about edible bananas, this statement is quite correct.  Unfortunately, Lessard extrapolated the comment to apply it to the entire genus Musa.   This led him to place both Musa coccinea and Musa velutina in section Australimusa because of their upright inflorescences.  In fact Musa coccinea is in section Callimusa (at least for the time being) and Musa velutina is in section Rhodochlamys.

   

last revision 05 November 2002