1. Calem-Bala Hendrick Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, Hort. Malab. 20 (1686).
2. Musa XI Pisang batu seu pisang bidii G. E. Rumphius, Herb. Amb. 5, 132, t. 60 fig. f. (1750).
3. Musa troglodytarum C. Linnaeus, Species Plantarum ed. II. 1478 p.p. (1763).
4. Musa seminifera J. de Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 644 p.p. (1790).
5. Musa sapientum C. Linnaeus ("the wild sort") sensu W. Roxburgh: Hort. Beng. 19 (1814); Corom. Pl. t. 275 (1819); Fl. Ind. 2, 484 (1824) et ed. 2. 663 (1832): non C. Linnaeus.
6. Musa sapientum C. Linnaeus sec. F. A. W. Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. 587 (1855) p.p. quoad Pisang bidji; sec. S. Kurz in Journ. Agric. Hort. Soc. India 14, 296 - 301 (1865 - 66) p.p. excl. syn. M. paradisiaca; non C. Linnaeus.
7. Musa paradisiaca C. Linnaeus sec. Trimen, Flora of Ceylon 4, 265 (1898); non C. Linnaeus.
8. Musa brachycarpa C. A. Backer in Handb. Flora van Java, Afl. 3. p. 134 (1924).
9. Musa sapientum subsp. seminifera forma pruinosa G. King MSS ex J. G. Baker, Ann. Bot. 7, 214 (1893); E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bull. 1948, 327
10. Musa sapientum var. pruinosa G. King MSS ex A. M. Cowan & J. M. Cowan, Trees of North Bengal, 135 (1929).
11. Musa liukiuensis (J. Matsumura) T. Makino
12. Musa paradisiaca subsp. seminifera var. pruinosa G. King ex K. Schumann
13. Musa sapientum var. pruinosa (G. King ex K. Schumann) A. M. Cowan & J. M. Cowan
14. Musa sapientum sensu J. G. Baker non L.
15. Musa paradisiaca subsp. sapientum (L.) K. Schumann
16. Musa x sapientum var. liukiuensis J. Matsumura
17. Musa seminifera J. de Loureiro
18. Musa paradisiaca subsp. seminifera (J. de Loureiro) J. G. Baker
19. Musa dechangensis J. L. Liu & M. G. Liu
20. Musa lushanensis J. L. Liu
21. Musa luteola J. L. Liu

"Plant stooling freely ; pseudostems robust, up to more than 6 metres high, commonly at least 30 cm. in diameter at base, predominantly green or yellowish green, the upper parts of the leaf-sheaths often with black markings and the lower parts in age often light reddish brown ; leaf- sheaths and petioles usually more or less glaucous or pruinose, sometimes heavily so.

Leaf blades oblong, up to more than 3 m. long, 60 cm. wide, truncate at apex, rounded or slightly cordate at base, green above, paler and more or less glaucous beneath, midribs green or yellowish green ; petioles 60 cm. long or longer, strongly concave above, their edges almost meeting over the adaxial channel, margins inconspicuous above, more developed below, where the petiole passes into the leaf-sheath, here closely appressed to the pseudostern, not becoming scarious, often bordered by a black line.

Inflorescence pendulous, its peduncle and rachis glabrous ; basal flowers female, the number of female hands varying up to about 10 (10 - 15 fide Backer) ; upper hands male.

Male bud in advanced blooming broadly ovoid to ellipsoidal, the bracts imbricate at the blunt apex.  Bracts various shades of purple, broadly ovate, rounded at apex, often greenish or yellow at extreme tip ; outer surface more or less glaucous, usually longitudinally ribbed, inner surface dark crimson to the base, transversely corrugated between the ribs ; several bracts lifted at the same time, exposing several hands of male flowers simultaneously ; bracts usually soon deciduous after flowering but occasionally persistent in a withered condition, especially in the later stages of blooming.

Male flowers about 20 per bract, in two rows ; compound tepal 4 - 5 cm. long, about 1.2 cm. wide, whitish in ground colour but commonly more or less purplish within, the pigmentation varying from a pale blotch at the base of the tepal to bright reddish purple over most of its length, and showing through to the outside as a pink tinge ; upper part of tepal, including the teeth, yellow, varying from pale yellow to rather dark orange, the teeth about 5 mm. long, the 2 outer with a dorsal filiform appendage 1 - 2 mm. long ; free tepal about half as long as the compound tepal, translucent white or pinkish, more or less boat-shaped, obtuse, truncate, or emarginate at apex, with a short mucronate apicula ; stamens at first as long as the perianth, later exserted.

Fruit bunch pendent, very compact, the crowded fruits having little room (except in the basal hand) to reflex geotropically, and consequently for the most part standing out from the rachis. Individual fruit about 10 cm. long (7 - 15 cm. Backer), 4 cm. in diameter, distinctly angulate at maturity, rather abruptly narrowed at base into a pedicel of 1 - 2 cm., and more gradually at apex into a short broad acumen ; pericarp about 3 mm. thick, pale yellow at full ripeness, soon blackening ; pulp whitish.

Seeds black, irregularly globose, scarcely depressed, minutely warty, 5 - 6 mm. across and 4 - 5 mm. high".

(Cheesman 1948a.  The references to Backer in the above description is cited below).

For such a fundamental banana species it is interesting to note that it was not formally described in its modern, accepted sense until 1948.

The fruits of Musa balbisiana are pickled (presumably when young before the seeds have developed) and the male flower buds are eaten as a vegetable according to Uphof 1968.   Zeven & Zhukovsky 1975 note that it is said to be cultivated in its own right for leaves for packing material or as a fibre plant.  In fact, Musa balbisiana (as Musa liukiuensis) is the true Japanese Fibre Banana or ito-basho grown (but mainly "wild") in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan from which the cloth basho is woven.  Musa basjoo is not the Japanese Fibre Banana.  Neither M. balbisiana nor M. basjoo is native to the Ryukyu Islands or to Japan being probably introduced, respectively, from the Philippines or Java and China.

In contrast to the polymorphic Musa acuminata with numerous subspecies identified Musa balbisiana appears to be a remarkably uniform species with only one variety reported recently from the Anadaman Islands, see next entry.  To some extent this uniformity is an illusion.  While not as variable as M. acuminata taxonomists working in the field in India and south-east Asia are well aware that variability exists in M. balbisiana.

Images:

There is 1 image of Musa balbisiana.