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Ensete proboscideum
Ensete proboscideum (D. Oliver, in J. D Hooker, Icones
Plantarum 18, t. 1777 (1888)) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 102 (1947).
| Accepted name |
none
- type rejected as nomen dubium. |
| Synonyms |
Musa proboscidea D. Oliver, in J.
D Hooker, Icones Plantarum 18, t. 1777 (1888). |
| Authorities |
The
authority for the name being rejected as nomen dubium is Baker & Simmonds
1953 as corrected (please see link below) nothwithstanding Cheesman 1947a and Lock 1993. |
| Distribution |
Tanzania (Ukami hills) |
| Description |
See
Musa proboscidea for a description of the type. |
| References |
Baker 1893: 207, Baker
& Simmonds 1953: 408, Champion 1967: 42, Cheesman 1947a: 102, Lebrun & Stork 1995, Lock 1993, Mobot Tropicos, Oliver 1888. |
| Comments |
Cheesman created Ensete proboscideum as a new
combination (number 7 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 type Musa proboscidea must be rejected based on the type being
regarded as nomen dubium because: "The photograph [of
the type] shows a plant probably
8 - 10 ft. high (there is no scale) on which all the leaves are dead and the probably
over-ripe bunch bears a very long male rachis from which all the bracts have fallen.
The seed resembles that of E. gilletii but approaches E. edule in size
(10 x 10 x 11 mm.). It is most probably a small-seeded form of E. edule but
the inadequacy of description and typification constrain us to treat it as a nomen
dubium". Baker & Simmonds
thus reject Cheesman's Ensete proboscideum. Although
apparently citing Baker & Simmonds 1953, Lock 1993 gives a slightly different
interpretation. Having studied Kirk's type material at Kew, Lock states that
"the seeds are undoubtedly those of Ensete ventricosum,
although a little smaller than average" and Lock accepts Musa proboscoidea
(sic) and Ensete proboscoideum (sic) as
"doubtful" synonyms of Ensete ventricosum.
It should be noted that some authors including Lock & Mobot Tropicos spell the name proboscoideum
(-ea) instead of proboscideum (-ea); this should be regarded as
a typographical error.
Holotype:
Kirk s.n. (in Kew); a packet of seeds from "the hills of Ukami
about 100 miles inland to the West of the Island of Zanzibar", and 3 Baker
& Simmonds) or 4 (Baker) photographs, probably of cultivated plants growing in
Zanzibar by Sir John Kirk. |
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