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Ensete homblei
Ensete homblei (J. Bequaert ex E. A. J. De Wildeman, Ann. Mus. Colon. Marseille
ser. 2, 10: 332 (1912) and Les Bananiers : 51 (1913)) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2):
103 (1947) and R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953).
| Accepted name |
Ensete homblei (J. Bequaert ex E. A. J. De Wildeman)
E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947) and R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds,
Kew Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953). |
| Synonyms |
Musa homblei J. Bequaert ex E. A. J. De Wildeman, Ann. Mus.
Colon. Marseille ser. 2, 10: 332 (1912) and Les Bananiers : 51 (1913). |
| Authorities |
The source for the accepted name and synonym is Cheesman
1947a and Baker & Simmonds 1953. |
| Distribution |
A restricted area in the southern part of the Democratic
Republic of Congo and neighbouring northern Zambia. (Possibly S.W. Tanzania). |
| Description |
A
tiny species [in Ensete terms], 0.8 - 1.1 m. tall with small leaves and more
canna-like than banana-like in general aspect. Pseudostem slightly swollen at the
base, often (but not invariably) with 1 - 4 young corms around the mother-corm either as
the result of spontaneous suckering or colonial germination of seeds. Leaf sheaths
clasping mid-trunk half-way around the stem, the higher sheaths less clasping and leaves
passing into bracts on the peduncle. Leaves (12 cm.) shorter than the sheaths,
grey-glaucous, oblong-lanceolate, with elongated apices. Lamina halves turned
upwards, forming a gutter, and midribs underdeveloped, upper half almost invisible,
abruptly broadening towards the base and merging into the sheath. No petiole, but
long sheath clasping around the stem for ca. 20 cm. or about 2/3 of its
length. Peduncle short and erect, inflorescence subhorizontal, dense and
small. Bracts almost reduced to sheaths, ending in a kind of pointed lamina,
numerous, persistent, covering the fruits. Basal flowers female. Hermaphrodite
flowers biseriate. Male flowers monoseriate, perianth 3-lobed, encompassing the
shorter, free tepal which is 3 - toothed, its middle tooth long and mucronate; 5 stamens.
Pollen small (120 µ; cf. pollen of E. ventricosum, which is 140
- 150 µ.). Fruits small (24 x 40 mm.), subpyriform, constricted at the base, apex
rounded with a short point in the middle and an indistinct pedicel, glabrous, waxy and
blackish, with scanty, pale-yellow, dry and bitter pulp. Seeds numerous, ovoid,
angular, shining black, small (5 - 6 mm. high x 6 - 8 mm. in diameter). The plants
found (invariably?) growing on termite mounts in wooded savannahs or dry grassland, dying
down to a perennating, scale-covered corm as an ecological adaptation to unfavourable dry
seasons and bush fires. (De Wildeman 1912, Fawcett 1913, Milne-Redhead 1952, Baker
& Simmonds 1953). |
| References |
Baker &
Simmonds 1953: 408, Champion 1967, Cheesman 1947a, De
Wildeman 1912: 332, Fawcett 1913: 277-278, Lebrun & Stork 1995, Lock 1993, Milne-Redhead
1950: 150, Simmonds 1960, White & Angus 1962. |
| Comments |
Cheesman created Ensete homblei as a new combination
(number 22 out of 25) in a brief note in his 1947 paper reviving the genus Ensete.
Cheesman revived one and created 24 Ensete species in that paper but acknowledged
that field study might reveal synonymy. Thus far the status of E. homblei
has not been challenged. This is a highly intriguing little species for a number of
reasons.
According to Cheesman (1947 a) "This
species is exceptional in the size of its seeds, which are the smallest I have seen in the
genus, only 6 - 8 mm. in diameter. In shape and structure, however, they conform to
the general Ensete pattern, and from De Wildeman's description there can be no
doubt about the affinities of the species".
According to Milne-Redhead (1950: 2-3) it was "J. Bequaert
[who] collected the plant at the beginning of the dry season in
1912, when he got it in fruit. A detailed description made in the field by him was
published by De Wildeman (l.c. 332-336). The flowers, however, have not until now
been described. [ ] The deciduous perennial
habit, the presence of suckers are both anomalous characters, no doubt associated with the
abnormal (for Ensete) conditions of the habitat in which the species thrives.
[ ] In E. Homblei the flowers subtended by
each bract are arranged in but a single series, as against two in [other] Ensete [species]. Whilst this may
be just another example of the reduction in size that has produced E. Homblei,
there is another character which cannot be so explained. K. Schumann (Das Pflanzenreich
IV. 45, Musaceae, 6: 1900) mentions that Musa Ensete J. F. Gmel. and its allies
(species now placed in Ensete by Cheesman) lack the free blades of the two inner
anterior tepals. These are present, however, in E. Homblei, conspicuously
in the male flowers (fig. 4), whilst in the female flowers they are smaller and remain
adhering by their edges to the lobes of the outer perianth".
Whether
the species really does spontaneously sucker in nature is still a matter for conjecture.
Baker & Simmonds (1953: 408), are of the opinion that "the apparent tendency to suckering and therefore to a perennial habit
which has been noted by several authors is probably due to aggregated germination and
hence to growth of seedlings in clumps, each individual seedling being truly monocarpic
even if it grows up and dies down several times before flowering".
E. homblei is normally (invariably?) associated with termite mounds, an
interesting phenomenon requiring an explanation. This may simply be due to locally
favourable soil conditions as the result of the termites excavating activities.
However, those with local knowledge of the plant speculate that the association may be due
to protection afforded by the termites against root-knot nematodes. In addition, the
termites may in some way also protect against infestation by the banana borer weevil (Cosmopolites
sordidus). As a small plant of drought-prone areas E. homblei may be
less able to tolerate borer infestation than the more robust E. gilletii although
that species too is regularly infested.
It can be said for E. homblei as for E. gilletii that "much more information is needed on [the] biology
and life cycle" of this fascinating little species (Baker & Simmonds
1953).
Type: Homblé no. 671 (in Herb. Brux.) (Baker & Simmonds 1953: 408).
Images:
There
are 6 images of Ensete homblei. |
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