| Sometimes
written as Musa Fehi. 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". |