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Ensete ventricosum
Ensete ventricosum (F. M. J. Welwitsch, Apont. no. 45: 545 & 587, (1859)) E. E.
Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) and R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew
Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953) with correction in Kew Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953).
Accepted name |
Ensete
ventricosum (F. M. J. Welwitsch) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) and
R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953) with correction in Kew
Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953). |
Synonyms |
1.
Musa ensete J. F. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. ed. 13, 2: 567
(1791).
2. Musa ventricosa F. M. J. Welwitsch, Apont. no. 45:
545 & 587, (1859).
3. Musa buchananii J. G. Baker, Annals of
Botany 7: 207 (1893).
4. Musa schweinfurthii K. M. Schumann
& O. Warburg ex K. M. Schumann, Engl. Pflanzenreich. 4, 45 (Musaceae): 14
(1900).
6.
Musa arnoldiana E. A. J. De Wildeman, Bull. Soc. Etud.
Colon. Brux. 8: 339 (1901).
7. Musa holstii K. M. Schumann, Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 34:
121 - 124 (1904).
8. Musa ulugurensis O. Warburg & O. Moritz ex O. Warburg, Tropenpflanzer 8: 116 (1904).
9. Musa fecunda O. Stapf, J. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) 37: 526
(1906).
10. Musa laurentii E. A. J. De Wildeman,
Mission E. Laurent, 1: 371 - 374, t. 130, fig. 61 - 62. (1907) and Pl. Trop. de Grande
Culture, 1: 379 (1908).
11. Musa bagshawei A. B. Rendle & S. Greves,
Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 48: 169 [t. 506] (1910).
12. Musa davyae O. Stapf, Kew Bulletin :102 (1913).
13. Musa ruandensis E. A. J. De Wildeman, Bull. Jard.
Bot. Brux. 8: 111 (1923).
14. Musa rubronervata E. A. J. De Wildeman, Bull.
Jard. Bot. Brux. 8: 112 (1923).
15. Ensete edule P. F. Horaninow, Prodromus Monographiae
Scitaminarum, 41 (1862).
16. Ensete buchanani (J. G. Baker) E. E. Cheesman, Kew
Bulletin 2 (2): 102 (1947).
17. Ensete schweinfurthii (K. M. Schumann &
O. Warburg) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
18. Ensete arnoldianum (E. A. J. De Wildeman) E.
E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
19.
Ensete holstii (K. M. Schumann) E. E. Cheesman, Kew
Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
20. Ensete ulugurense (O. Warburg) E. E. Cheesman,
Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
21. Ensete fecundum (O. Stapf) E. E. Cheesman, Kew
Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
22. Ensete laurentii (E. A. J. De Wildeman) E. E.
Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
23. Ensete bagshawei (A. B. Rendle & S. Greves)
E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
24. Ensete davyae (O. Stapf) E. E. Cheesman, Kew
Bulletin 2 (2): 104 (1947).
25. Ensete ruandense (E. A. J. De Wildeman) E. E.
Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 104 (1947).
26. Ensete rubronervatum (E. A. J. De Wildeman)
E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2) : 104 (1947).
27. Musa africana Hort., Bull. Cat. 6 (1871).
Note: Various other African Musa transferred to Ensete by Cheesman 1947a
are possibly referable to Ensete ventricosum but were rejected by Baker &
Simmonds 1953 as follows:
Musa livingstoniana J. Kirk and Ensete livingstonianum (J. Kirk) E. E. Cheesman;
type description mixes elements of E. gilletii and E. edule and rejected
as nomen confusum.
Musa proboscidea D. Oliver and Ensete proboscideum (D. Oliver) E. E. Cheesman; type
description vague and rejected as nomen dubium.
Musa elephantorum K. M. Schumann & O. Warburg
and Ensete elephantorum (K. M. Schumann & O.
Warburg) E. E. Cheesman; type destroyed in Berlin Herbarium during W.W.II and rejected as nomen
dubium. |
Authorities |
The authorities for the accepted name are Cheesman 1947a and
Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (please see link below).
The sources for the synonyms are as follows:
1 - 26 are from Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (please see link below).
27 is from Baker 1893. |
Distribution |
Ensete
ventricosum ranges widely in Africa: Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. |
Description |
Tall
plants of 4 - 12 m. Pseudostem up to 5 m ; often variably stained purple or
purplish-brown ; with pale-whitish latex that reddens on exposure to air. Leaves
borne in a banana-like crown ; erect or spreading ; oblong-lanceolate ; lamina bright
(yellow-)green or variably stained with red-brown, more or less glaucous beneath.
Midribs green, red or purple-brown. Petioles short. Bracts green without,
coloured within dark claret-brown, dull claret-brown, red, purple, greenish-brown, green
or streaked pale-greenish ; lanceolate-oblong, subacuminate or obtuse ; slightly
imbricate. Male bracts persistent or semi-deciduous (rotting away), densely
overlapping. Bracts subtending hermaphrodite flowers persistent and partially
covering the fruits. Inflorescence drooping, with massive male bud. Male
flowers white with orange-yellow tipped lobes ; outer perianth linear-oblong, 3-lobed ;
inner perianth serrate-apiculate, but apiculum sometimes absent ; stamens 5, anthers
violet-purple, filaments white, staminode absent or minute and acicular, style acicular.
Hermaphrodite flowers with orange-yellow tipped perianth and 3-lobed outer perianth
and 2 extra acicular lobes internally attached ; inner tepals 1 - 3, variable in shape
with 2 wings and apiculus of 1 - 5 cm ; stamens 1-5, anthers violet to dark-purple and
slightly longer than filaments, with large capitate stigma and yellow or greyish pollen ;
staminodes variable in number and size, depending on number of stamens present.
Occasionally female flowers, without stamens but with staminodes. Fruits
trilocular, tapering to the base, hardly pedicillate, 8 - 15 x 4.5 cm, with persistent
style and floral remains and obtuse apex. Mature fruits dry ; bright or
yellow-orange with orange pulp. Seeds large (12 - 18 mm in diameter), up to 40 per
fruit, hard and glossy black or greyish-brown ; irregularly subspherical ; from deeply
striate to almost smooth ; usually with callus lump opposite the hilum, with small
depression in centre.
(Baker 1893, Baker & Simmonds 1953, Simmonds 1960, Lock 1993). |
References |
Argent 1984, Baker 1893: 207, Baker 1898: 330, Baker
& Simmonds 1953: 414, Burkill 1935: 1534 - 1535, Champion 1949: 19 - 24, Champion
1967: 9 - 10, 43, Cheesman 1947a: 101, De Wildeman 1912: 358 - 359, Fawcett 1913: 275, Graf Exotica, Graf Tropica, Griffiths 1994, GRIN, Horaninow 1862, Huxley 1992, INIBAP,
Kew Bulletin 1894: 241, Lebrun & Stork:
33 - 34, Lock 1993: 3 - 4, Mobot
Tropicos, Moore 1957: 192, RHS
1956, Retief & Herman 1997: 108, Robyns & Tournay 1955: 402 - 404, Rossel 1998: 15 et seq., 24 et seq., 42 et
seq., Schumann 1912: 14, 59 - 60, Simmonds 1960: 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212. |
Comments |
Ensete
ventricosum came to be the name for the most widespread Ensete in Africa
despite the fact that Ensete edule was the first and only Ensete named
by P. F. Horaninow when he created the genus in 1862. This occurred as follows:
In 1859 Welwitsch named an Angolan banana species Musa ventricosa (meaning
big-bellied or pot-bellied) on account of its swollen stem base. This species seems
not to have been known to Horaninow who did not include it in his 1862 conspectus of Musa.
In reviving the genus Ensete in 1947 Cheesman took Ensete edule as his
type and transferred Musa ventricosa to Ensete ventricosum, species
number 4 out of 25. From the outset Cheesman suspected there might be synonymy in
his list of 25 Ensete species and this indeed proved to be the case.
Baker & Simmonds 1953 review of the genus Ensete in Africa radically
reduced the number of species either rejecting or reducing to synonyms most of Cheesman's
African Ensete. Baker and Simmonds' original paper seemed to reduce Ensete
ventricosum to a synonym of Ensete edule
and establish that species as the principal Ensete of Africa. However, when
it was noticed that, via Musa ventricosa, Ensete ventricosum took
priority over Ensete edule by three years a substantial correction appeared in
the following issue of Kew Bulletin. This correction reduced Ensete edule to
a synonym of Ensete ventricosum (please see link above). Musa ensete
of course dates to 1791 and has priority over the other names. However, the name was
not available to use since it would have created the unacceptable tautology of Ensete
ensete.
The correction to Baker & Simmonds established Ensete ventricosum as the
principal Ensete of Africa but even that species' days may be numbered.
Simmonds (1960) comments that he can see no reliable differences between the Asian Ensete
glaucum and the African Ensete ventricosum. He speculates that it
might ultimately be necessary to reduce Ensete ventricosum to a synonym of
Ensete glaucum. The basionym for Ensete glaucum, Musa glauca,
was published by Roxburgh in 1814.
Variation within E. ventricosum.
E. ventricosum is a highly polymorphic
species as may perhaps be deduced from the variety of names under which it has been
described from sites throughout its large African range. Variations within E.
ventricosum are found in:
The colour of the midribs (red or green)
The
colour of the leaves (from green to heavily stained with red-brown)
The colour of the bracts (red, purple or green)
Waxiness
Bract persistence
Certain floral details, even in different parts of the same
inflorescence, e.g.
The basal flowers are commonly hermaphrodite but rarely found
to be functionally female
The outer tepal is very variable, normally with 3 lobes but
sometimes with 1 - 2 smaller, acicular and internally attached extra lobes
There are 1 - 3 variably-shaped inner tepals
The number of stamens varies between 0 - 5
The number of staminodes is variable, depending on the
number of stamens, and their size is also variable
The male flowers vary greatly in size (partly correlated with
age) and in the form of the perianth parts
Seed numbers vary from 0 - 40 seeds per fruit (mainly due to
differences in pollination or fertilisation)
Seed varies in shape, from nearly spherical (if few seeds per
fruit) to flattened-irregular (if many seeds per fruit); in surface characters, from
smooth to deeply striate; and in decoration, with or without a lump of callus
opposite the hilum sometimes with a shallow depression in its centre
Seed varies in size, e.g.
Ethiopia 3.33 cc.
northern
Kenya and Uganda 1.64 - 2.90 cc.
Democratic Republic of Congo 1.83 - 3.24 cc.
Angola to Transvaal, Malawi to Tanzania and southern
Kenya 2.64 - 5.67 cc.
north-eastern Tanzania and southern Kenya 4.83 - 5.67 cc.
For comparison, seed sizes of the other two African species
are 0.38 - 0.69 cc. for E. gilletii and 0.16 - 0.22 cc. for E. homblei.
Variation
types are not correlated and, as is the case with the extremely variable M. acuminata,
variation is geographically discontinuous.
(Simmonds 1962: 47, Baker & Simmonds 1953: 409 - 410, 414 - 415).
E. ventricosum is a fascinating plant from a
horticultural but also from an ethnobotanical viewpoint, see for example:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/EUE/enset0494.html
http://www.aaas.org/international/ssa/enset/index.htm
mirror for above URL
http://www2.scienceupdate.com/international/ssa/enset/index.htm
Horticulturally,
Ensete ventricosum is the easiest Ensete to find commercially. It
is quite easy to grow into a huge plant even in a temperate garden although it requires
overwintering under protection in most years. Most commercially available plants are
grown from seed but micropropagation is also applied to selected forms (more to follow).
Images:
There
are currently eight images of Ensete ventricosum. |
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