Musa cerifera

Musa cerifera
sensu C. A. B. Backer
Musa cerifera (C. A. B. Backer) T. Nakai, Bulletin of the Tokyo Science Museum. No. 22. II: 14 (1948).

Accepted name ? Musa acuminata L. A. Colla subsp. zebrina (L. B. Van Houtte) A. N. Other
Synonyms Musa malaccensis H. N. Ridley f. cerifera C. A. B. Backer.   
Authorities The authority for the accepted name is inferred from Simmonds 1956 (but see comments below).

The synonym is from Nakai 1948 and cited also in Index Kewensis.
Section Eumusa.
Distribution Java.
Description  
References Cheesman 1948b : 24, Hotta 1989 : 69, Index Kewensis, Jarret 1987, Nakai 1948 : 9 & 14, Simmonds 1956 : 466.
Comments

This seems to be a form of Musa acuminata, "afford[ing] good white wax melting at 84ºC" (Nakai citing Gorter) and used in Indonesia for making batik cloth.  Nakai goes on to say that "this banana is native of Mid-Java, and formerly was cultivated much in the villages south of Bandoeng to get commercial wax.  The leaves are so rich of white wax, as by touch one's hand and cloth become as white as he touched white chalk wall."

Although this taxon is not mentioned by Simmonds 1956 it would seem straightforward that this Javanese plant should be treated as a synonym of his "usually strongly waxy" Musa acuminata subsp. malaccensis.   However, admitting a Javanese plant under synonymy is not quite as simple as that because, as Simmonds himself points out, "if [ ] the same subspecies is characteristic of the lowlands of Java then the name zebrina van Houtte would have to be used as having priority over malaccensis".    The combination Musa acuminata subsp. zebrina is in the literature, see for example Jarret 1987 where confusingly it seems to be an entity distinct from subsp. malaccensis, but I do not know the authority for it.


 


last revision 23 April 2003