Musa fehi

Musa fehi C. L. G. Bertero ex E. (D. E.) Vieillard

Accepted name none - undetermined cultivated form of a Fe'i banana.
Synonyms Musa troglodytarum L.
Authorities The authority for there not being an accepted name is Stover & Simmonds 1987.  The synonymy is according to Huxley 1992 and GRIN but see comments below.
Section Australimusa
Distribution New Caledonia.
Description  
References Anon 1906 : 18, Cheesman 1949m, Graf Exotica, Griffiths 1994, GRIN, Huxley 1992, Jarret 1986, RHS 1956, Sagot 1887 : 329, Stover & Simmonds 1987, Zeven & Zhukovsky 1975.
Comments Sometimes written as Musa Fe’hi.

The Australimusa section is a group of Musa species that have given rise to the only group of edible-fruit bearing bananas not derived from Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana.  The Fe'i bananas are highly distinctive with upright inflorescences and coloured (red or purple) plant sap. 

However, in one respect they are just like the edible Eumusa, their nomenclature is extremely confused.

According to Stover & Simmonds, Musa fehi was originally applied to a group of clones of cultivated plants grown for fruit in New Caledonia.  The clones probably originated by hybridisation of a range of species possibly including Musa maclayi, M. jackeyi, M. angustigemma, M. peekelii and possibly others as yet undescribed.  Stover & Simmonds give Polynesia & Melanesia as the source of the plants named Musa troglodytarum that Huxley, presumably erroneously, treats as synonymous with Musa fehi.

In contrast to Stover & Simmonds, Huxley states that Musa fehi was originally applied to plants from Tahiti and Musa troglodytarum to plants from Sumatra. 

Simmonds & Stover caution that the Fe'i bananas are so poorly understood that the use of Latin binomials is "unwise".


 


last revision 23 April 2003