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Musa borneënsis
Musa borneënsis O. Beccari, Nelle Foreste di Borneo, 622 (1902).
| Accepted name |
Musa borneënsis O. Beccari, Nelle Foreste di
Borneo, 622 (1902). |
| Synonyms |
Musa
borneënse |
| Authorities |
Cheesman
1950r. The
synonym (a simple mis-spelling?) is quoted at RBGE. |
| Section |
Callimusa |
| Distribution |
Borneo
(Sarawak, Brunei). |
| Description |
"Plant similar in appearance and size to a common banana.
Leaf-stalks arcuate-spreading ; margins of the sheaths glabrous, auriculate, clasping and
corrugate. Bunch large, unilateral, pendent. Male flowers uniseriate, 5 - 8
to each bract, white, greenish at the tip ; bracts rose-vinous, reflexed, revolute at the
apex. Perigonium (closed), two-keeled, open above, semi-clasping : compound tepal
provided at the tip with three spreading teeth, later reflexed, green, triangular, the
middle one obtuse, the lateral ones terminated by a long filiform point ; free tepal
cymbiform, slightly inflated, acute at the apex ; stamens included in the perigonium ;
pollen extruded unitedly in a viscosity at the mouth of the perigonium. Fruit
glabrous, uniseriate, 14 - 16 cm. long and 3.5 cm. thick ; seed obpyriform, rather large,
about 1 cm. long and 7 mm. wide, tuberculate roughish in the upper half".
(translation of Beccari's original Latin description and notes in Italian from Cheesman
1950 r).
"The plant is stoloniferous, though stooling
rather sparsely under [Trinidad] conditions. Its pseudostems reach about 3 m. in
height and 15 - 20 cm. in diameter at the base, and are green with a purplish flush and
blackish-purple markings, quite devoid of wax. Leaf-bades are 2 - 2.5 m. long, 60 -
65 cm. wide (all dimensions are probably bigger in Sarawak as our plant is checked
annually by the dry season [in Trinidad]) on petioles about 60 cm. long. The broad
corrugated auricles at the region where the petiole joins the sheath are conspicuous and
characteristic.
The female flowers (5 - 8) per bract in a single row) have a compound tepal 6 - 7 cm.
long, with two prominent thickened keels and hyaline margins, its lobes are small (2 - 3
mm.) and the accessory teeth minute. The free tepal is 4.5 - 5 cm. long and the
staminodes are about 1 cm. long.The
male bud in advanced blooming is very broadly ovate, with the bracts strongly imbricate.
The bracts described by Beccari as "rosy-vinous", are indeed a very
handsome crimson-purple, green at the extreme tip, broadly ovate and blunt, shining with a
polished appearance and stiff in texture. There is nothing unusual about the
dehiscence of the anthers and the extrusion of the pollen.
The seeds of our plant are a trifle smaller
than Beccari's, 7 mm. long and 5 mm. wide, but otherwise answer excellently to his
description, having a distinct waist at the middle (marking the base of the perisperm
chamber within) and being rugose-tuberculate above this line and smooth below".
(Cheesman
1950r). |
| References |
Champion 1967 : 39, Cheesman
1950r, Cranbrook & Edwards 1994
: 153, Coode et al 1996 : 337, Fawcett 1913 : 273, Hotta 1989,
IPGRI, RBGE, Simmonds 1960 : 202 - 203. |
| Comments |
Cheesman
notes that this is the largest Callimusa and has the largest non-parthenocarpic
fruits in the whole genus Musa.
Various forms exist with different bract colours. Most widespread is the form with
purplish or reddish bracts described above but in Brunei a closely related (possibly
synonymous) cream to yellow-bracted plant (see Musa flavida)
is most common according to Coode et al 1996. |
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