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Musa perrieri
Musa perrieri P. Claverie, Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences de Paris 140:
1612 (1905).
| Accepted name |
Ensete perrieri (P. Claverie) E. E. Cheesman,
Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947). |
| Synonyms |
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| Authorities |
The authorities for the accepted name are Cheesman 1947a and
Simmonds 1960. |
| Section |
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| Distribution |
Madagascar. |
| Description |
Plant 6 - 7 m. (ca. 20 ft.) tall, pseudostem to 4 m. tall and
2½ ft. in diameter at the base. The colour of the sap pink in outer sheaths and
violet-red in inner sheaths. Inflorescence big, dense and pendulous. First
bracts have a short blade. Bracts oval and varying in colour (green, yellow, pink or
violet). Flowers 18 - 20 per bract. Male flowers with 5 perfect and 1 abortive
stamen. Free petal 3-lobed, median lobe acute, lateral lobes rounded. Fruits
very numerous (up to 210/bunch), 4 - 5 in. long and about 1 in. thick, with a thin layer
of yellowish pulp. Seeds numerous, black, 1/3 in. or 8.3 mm. in diameter, irregularly ovoid, warty, with a
large hilum and a depressed micropyle. (Fawcett
1913 and ?). |
| References |
Champion 1949, Champion 1967:
42, Cheesman 1947a: 103, Claverie 1905: 1611-1612, Claverie
1909, De Wildeman 1912, Fawcett 1913: 274, GRIN, Heckel 1910 : 234 - 235, Hubert
1907, Mobot Tropicos, Perrier de la Bathe 1946: 3, Simmonds 1960: 206, 212, Uphof
1968. |
| Comments |
This
was one of a number of Musa transferrred to Ensete by Cheesman in his
1947 paper reviving the genus Ensete. The Madagascan flora has African
elements but is quite distinct with a large number of endemic species. But like the
African flora there are no wild Musa native to Madagascar, but there does appear
to one unique Ensete species. Claverie
comments, "Notre Musa, par son tronc renflé a la
base, l'absence de réjéts, la forme des diverses pieces du perianthe, appartient a la
section des Physocaulis; et il se place, par le nombre des fleurs de chaque série et
l'aspect de ses inflorescences, au voisinage du Musa ensete de l'Afrique
orientale. Mais il s'en distingué nettement par le nombre des etamines et la
hauteur de sa tige. Il differe des Musa ventricosa et schweinfurthii
par la forme de son tepale; et des Musa buchanani, superba, nepalensis
par le nombre plus considerable de ses fleurs et la position pendante de ses
inflorescences. Enfin il s'eloigne nettement du Musa proboscidea par le
nombre plus faible de ses fleurs, par sa tige renflée a la base, par la forme de ses
bractées floriferes fortement allongées et par ses inflorescences beaucoup plus
ramassées. L'aspect general de cette espéce de Madagascar est d'ailleurs bien
different de celui qu'indique Oliver dans les [Hooker's] Icones
[Plantarum], pour le Musa proboscidea. Nous croyons
donc pouvoir, sans hesiter, considerer comme une espéce nouvelle ce Musa de l'Ambongo,
que nous nommons Musa perrieri".
It
will be very interesting to know whether its affinities lie with the African or Asian
species of Ensete, according to Claverie it seems to differ from both in
floral characteristics. And if the seeds are really warty then it differs from all
known Ensete.
Champion
1967 seems to bring into synonymy here Musa pierrei Hubert citing Fawcett; "M. perrieri Claverie [ ] dans Fawcett = M. pierrei
Hubert = Ensete perrieri (Clav.) Cheesman". I do know how he
gets this idea since Fawcett p. 274 describes M. perrieri under the subgenus Physocaulis
and M. pierrei under the subgenus Eumusa on p. 268. Although the
description of M. pierrei is poor the fact that it has an erect inflorescence
would seem to be more than enough to separate it.
GRIN
accepts Musa perrieri P. Claverie as the accepted name.
Type:
Perrier de la Bathie no. 1796 in Herb. Mus. Paris (also Herb. Mus. Col. Marseille ?)
See also Decary 2337, 6883 and Perrier 16897 in Herb. Mus. Paris. |
Compiled
partly with information from Gerda Rossel.
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