|
| |
Musa gigantea
Musa gigantea C. E. O. Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 2: 691 (1891).
| Accepted name |
none - type species dubia |
| Synonyms |
Ensete gigantea (C. E.
O. Kuntze) T. Nakai, Bulletin of the Tokyo Science Museum 22: 12 (1948). |
| Authorities |
The authorities for the species dubia
designation are Cheesman 1947 and Simmonds 1960, notwithstanding Hotta 1989, see comments
below.
The synonym is from Nakai 1948. |
| Section |
|
| Distribution |
Sumatra. |
| Description |
Plant
nearly 30 ft. high, not suckering. Inflorescence 10 ft. long. Bracts green,
ovate-oblong. Flowers white, 20 - 40 to each bract. Fruit 2 in. long, angled.
Seeds very small. (Fawcett
1913).
Pseudostem
9 to 10 metres tall, 40 cm. or more in diameter. Fruits 5 to 6 cm. in diameter.
(Nakai 1948).
Solitary
pseudostems 7 - 9 m. high, 30 cm. or more in diameter. A pendulous inflorescence 3
m. long bears female flowers in the lower fourth, male flowers above in the axils of
spreading, persistent, ovate-oblong bracts 25 cm. long 11 cm. wide. White flowers 5
- 6 cm. long number 20 - 40 in each cluster. The angled fruit is about 5 cm. long
and bears 8 - 10 small pale seeds 1 - 3 mm. across in a scarcely fleshy pulp.
(Moore
1957). |
| References |
Champion 1967: 40, Cheesman
1947a : 104, Fawcett 1913: 278, Hotta 1989 : 67, Moore 1957 :
186, Nakai 1948 : 12, Simmonds
1960 : 200. |
| Comments |
Cheesman 1947 considered M. gigantea Kuntze to be species
dubia commenting "Musa gigantea Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
691 (1891). Placed by Schumann in the subgenus Physocaulis "not
without hesitation". The plant described was in a Java garden, and said to be
from Sumatra. The habit suggests an Ensete sp. but the description of the
fruit suggests that the plant was virtually sterile, or else had received no pollen (which
it would not if the lower flowers were female only and the plant was growing alone). The 8
- 10 small (1 - 3 mm.) and pale seeds in a 3 - 4-angled, scarcely fleshy fruit strongly
suggest failure of fertilization. The must remain "species dubia"
until more is known about the fruit and seed. Backer does not mention it in his
excellent account of Musaceae in Flora van Java". In his discussion of Musa ingens, Simmonds 1960 also
mentions Musa gigantea and comments that Kuntze's description is not good and
that the species needs to be recollected before it can be evaluated.
While serving as Director of Buitenzorg
(Bogor) Botanical Gardens during WW II, Nakai set out to "get the real information of this banana"
but was merely shown "three spots where those giants had
grown." Despite this, Nakai remained convinced
that "Musa gigantea is still growing somewhere
in Sumatra".
Nakai was aware of Cheesman's 1947 revival of the genus Ensete and obviously
considered that that was where Musa gigantea belonged thus creating the new
combination Ensete gigantea (sic) and placing it with Ensete glaucum in
a new section he named Pruinensete.
In his idiosyncratic English, Takenosin Nakai comments that "Dr. Backer is sure of this is Musa
glauca (see Brittonia III-I, 77 (1938), but such fragmental type specimen consists of
pieces of few flowers makes one's easy mistake."
This association was presumably the basis of Hotta's listing of Musa gigantea
and Ensete gigantea as synonyms of Ensete glaucum.
From discussion on the Garden Forum - Tropicals there seems
to be a plant known commonly as Musa gigantea in cultivation in the
USA. I do not know what plant this is except that it is not this one. Moore
1957 comments, "if some
plants cultivated under this name are other than a large form of some species already
known, it will be necessary to study them at maturity for satisfactory placement". |
| |
|