|
| |
Musa lasiocarpa
Musa lasiocarpa A. R. Franchet, in Morot, Journ. de Bot. 3: 329 (1889) and J. G.
Baker, Ann. Bot. 7: 208 (1893).
| Accepted name |
Musella lasiocarpa
(A. R. Franchet) C. Y. Wu ex H. W. Li, Acta Phytotax. Sinica 16 (3): 56-57
(1978). |
| Synonyms |
Ensete lasiocarpum (A.
R. Franchet) E. E. Cheesman |
| Authorities |
The accepted name is from Li 1978. The synonym is from Cheesman 1947 and Icon. Corm. Sinicorum
accepts Ensete lasiocarpum (A. R. Franchet) E. E. Cheesman as the accepted name.
However, Simmonds 1960 accepts Musa lasiocarpa A. R. Franchet as the
accepted name. |
| Distribution |
China
(Yunnan & Guizhou) up to 2,500 m, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). |
| Description |
Whole
plant 1 - 2 ft. long. Stems sending out at the base a stout horizontal rhizome.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, about a foot long, very glaucous, narrowed at the base to
a petiole which is rather shorter than the blade, the broad truncate bases of the old
leaves persisting round the base of the stem. Panicle dense, erect, oblong, under a
foot long ; bracts thin, yellowish, persistent, the upper ovate, the lower
ovate-lanceolate. Flowers 4 - 8 in a cluster, above an inch long. Calyx
5-lobed. Petal shorter, ovate-oblong. Fruit oblong-trigonous, dry, pubescent,
with 4 - 6 seeds in each cell, which fill up the whole cavity. Mountains of Yunnan,
alt. 4000 ft., Delavay. Franchet founds on this curious species a section
called Musella, characterised by its membranous bracts and by possessing a
rhizome. (Baker 1893).
Whole plant 1- 2 ft. high. Trunk
wanting. Rhizome covered with successive frills of the lower persistent
leaf-sheaths. Leaves about 1 ft. long. Inflorescence under 1 ft. long, erect,
dense. Fruit hairy, oblong three-angled. Seeds 4 - 6 in each cell.
Rocks in mountains of Yunnan, China, 4000 ft. altitude. "Rock banana."
(Fawcett 1913). |
| References |
Champion 1967: 41Cheesman 1947a: 102, Fawcett
1913 : 266, Franchet 1889, GRIN, Icon. Corm. Sinicorum, ING
database, Lancaster 1989, Li
1978, Mabberley 1997, Mobot FoC,
Mobot Tropicos, Simmonds 1960:
203, 204, 207, 210. |
| Comments |
" [...Ensete] lasiocarpum
[ ] is a dwarf, virtually stemless plant with a dense, erect
inflorescence, a swollenand fleshy inflorescence axis, and a hairy fruit which is dry
rather than fleshy at maturity and very few (4 - 6-)seeded. The illustration in the
Kew Bulletin [Add. Ser. 6: 15 (1906)] certainly suggests an Ensete
in general appearance but the plant is said to be rhizomatous and the perianth structure
is like that of Musa. Recent investigations [ ] suggest that perianth characters are critically diagnostic of genus and I
prefer to regard the plant as a Musa until it shall be recollected and its status
determined. [ ]
Ensete lasiocarpum presents a
problem: though undoubtedly reminiscent of Ensete (as remarked above), it has the
perianth of a Musa (Kew Bull., Add. Ser. 6, 15: 1906) ; this strongly suggests
that its proper place is in the genus under which it was described, and it is so treated
here [ ]".
(Simmonds 1960). |
| |
|