Ensete livingstonianum

Ensete livingstonianum (J. Kirk, Journal of the Linnean Society 9: 128 (1867)) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947).

Accepted name

Ensete livingstonianum (J. Kirk, Journal of the Linnean Society 9: 128 (1867)) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) according to Akoègninou et al (eds.) 2006.

Synonyms Musa livingstoniana J. Kirk, Journal of the Linnean Society 9: 128 (1867).
Authorities The authority for rejecting the name is Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (see below).

However, based on Akoègninou et al (eds.) 2006 the World Checklist of Monocotyledons gives Ensete livingstonianum (J.Kirk) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948) as an accepted name and lists the following synonyms:

Musa livingstoniana J.Kirk, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 9: 128 (1867).
Musa gilletii De Wild., Rev. Cultures Colon. 8: 102 (1900).
Musa religiosa Dyb., Rev. Hort. 72: 262 (1900).
Musa chevalieri Gagnep., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 55(8): 87 (1908).
Ensete gilletii (De Wild.) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 103 (1947 publ. 1948).
Ensete religiosum Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 103 (1947 publ. 1948), nom. inval.

Distribution  
Description See Musa livingstoniana for a description of the type.
References Akoègninou et al (eds.) 2006, Baker & Simmonds 1953: 408, Champion 1967: 41, Cheesman 1947a: 101, Lebrun & Stork 1995, Lock 1993.
Comments Following Akoègninou et al (eds.) 2006 [not seen] the name Ensete livingstonianum has been revived.  The text here needs rewriting as a result.

Cheesman created Ensete livingstonianum as a new combination (number 5 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. However, Baker & Simmonds consider instead that the name Musa livingstonianum must be rejected based on the type being regarded as nomen confusum. The type specimen (a packet of seeds collected from the ground by J. Mahon at Zomba, Nyasaland [now Malawi] and now in the Herbarium RBG Kew) matches Ensete gilletii but the accompanying description could only refer to Ensete edule [= E. ventricosum]. The location in Malawi suggests to one of us (GR) that the plant was probably a small-seeded form of E. ventricosum.

Champion 1967, citing Simmonds 1953 (sic), gives Ensete gilletii as the accepted name but the citation and interpretation are not quite correct.

Ensete livingstonianum is not mentioned by Lock 1993 its collection locality presumably falling outside the range of that flora.

See Musa livingstoniana for further discussion.

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last updated 01/05/2008