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Musa proboscidea
Musa proboscidea D. Oliver, in J. D. Hooker, Icones
Plantarum 18, t. 1777 (1888).
Accepted name |
none - type rejected as nomen dubium. |
Synonyms |
1.
Ensete proboscideum (D. Oliver) E. E. Cheesman, Kew
Bulletin 2 (2): 102 (1947).
2. Ensete ventricosum (F. M. J. Welwitsch) E. E.
Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) and see also J. M. Lock, in R. M.
Polhill (ed.) Flora of Tropical East Africa, Musaceae (1993). |
Authorities |
The source for the name being rejected is Simmonds and Baker
1953 nothwithstanding Cheesman 1947 and Lock 1993.
The synonyms are from 1. Cheesman 1947 and 2. Lock 1993. |
Distribution |
Tanzania (Ukami hills). |
Description |
Pseudostem
4 - 5 times as high as a man, dilated at the base. Leaves narrow-oblong, very
large, 3 - 4 times as long as broad, narrowed to the base. Petiole short and deeply
channelled. Inflorescence finally drooping, very much elongated, nearly as long as
the pseudostem. Bracts broad ovate, obtuse, about 4 times as long as the flowers,
not persistent. Flowers in 2 close rows of about 12 in a row. Free petal very
short, with two orbicular outer lobes and a large, linear central cusp. Seeds many,
turbinate, black, glossy, ½ in. long and broad, hilum slightly depressed.
(Oliver 1888, Baker 1893, 1894). |
References |
Baker 1893 : 207, Baker 1894a
: 239?, Baker 1898, Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 408, Champion 1967 : 42, Cheesman
1947 : 102, De Wildeman 1912, Fawcett 1913 : 276, Lebrun & Stork 1995, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot Tropicos, Oliver 1888, Schumann 1912. |
Comments |
This was one of a number of African Musa
transferrred to Ensete by Cheesman in his 1947 paper reviving the genus Ensete.
It is now recognised that there are no wild Musa native to Africa, only Ensete.
Baker and Simmonds 1953 however reject the name Musa proboscidea because:
"The photograph [of the type] shows a plant probably 8 - 10 ft. high (there is no scale) on
which all the leaves are dead and the probably over-ripe bunch bears a very long male
rachis from which all the bracts have fallen. The seed resembles that of E.
gilletii but approaches E. edule in size (10 x 10 x 11 mm.). It is
most probably a small-seeded form of E. edule but the inadequacy of description
and typification constrain us to treat it as a nomen dubium". Although
apparently citing Baker and Simmonds 1953, Lock 1993 gives a slightly different
interpretation. Having studied Kirk's type material at Kew, Lock states that
"the seeds are undoubtedly those of Ensete ventricosum,
although a little smaller than average" and Lock accepts Musa proboscoidea
(sic) and Ensete proboscoideum (sic) as
"doubtful" synonyms of Ensete ventricosum.
It should be noted that some authors including Lock and Mobot Tropicos spell the name proboscoideum
(-ea) instead of proboscideum (-ea). This should be
regarded as a typographical error.
Holotype:
Kirk s.n. (in Kew); a packet of seeds from "the hills of Ukami
about 100 miles inland to the West of the Island of Zanzibar", and 3 (Baker
& Simmonds) or 4 (Baker) photographs, probably of cultivated plants growing in
Zanzibar by Sir John Kirk. |
Compiled
partly with information from Gerda Rossel.
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