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Musa jackeyi
Musa jackeyi W. Hill, Report on the Brisbane Botanic Garden: 7 (1874).
| Accepted name |
Musa
jackeyi W. Hill, Report on the Brisbane Botanic Garden: 7 (1874). |
| Synonyms |
Musa hillii F. J. H. von Mueller, Fragmenta Phytographiae
Australiae, 9: 169, 190 (1875). |
| Authorities |
The
accepted name and synonym is from Simmonds 1956 and APNI. |
| Section |
Australimusa |
| Distribution |
Australia
(north east Queensland). |
| Description |
Herbaceous
; stem black, simple, thirty to forty feet long, thickly clothed with sheathing petioles
of the leaves ; leaves oblong, six to seven feet long, forming a tuft on the apex of the
stem ; spadix erect, flowers compound, rising from the apex of the stem, each division
enclosed in a spathe, with the male flowers at the base, female or hermaphrodite ones at
the upper end. Fruit short, horizontal, three to five cornered, with numerous seeds
buried in pulp ; flowers yellowish, limph of the old stem red could be used as marking
ink. Hab.--In
rich aluvial soil, on the banks of the Johnstone River. A new banana with black
stem, named after the faithful and affectionate attendant of the explorer Kennedy.
(Hill
quoted in Simmonds 1956). |
| References |
APNI, GRIN, INIBAP,
Ross 1987 : 18, Simmonds 1956
: 485-486, Simmonds 1960 : 204, Stover & Simmonds 1987, WCMC. |
| Comments |
Possibly
identical to Musa maclayi according to Stover & Simmonds 1987.
It would be a shame to lose a banana species named for an aboriginal Australian called
Jackey. In 1877 Sulpiz Kurz wrote that "Australia
does not yet cultivate the banana, and hence we are spared the doubtful pleasure of
learning amusing names of aborigines or colonists from this quarter of the globe".
Little did Kurz realise that when he cited Walter Hill as adding "two Australian bananas, viz., Musa Jackeyi and M.
Charlioi." he was indeed learning the nicknames of two Australian
aborigines.
Status is Rare according to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. |
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