| Musa troglodytarum is a right old mess dating back
to Linnaeus himself who included within it two disparate elements. As Cheesman
points out "in an astounding piece
of work [Linnaeus] lump[ed] together "Musa uranoscopus"
[of Rumphius] which has an erect inflorescence
with "Pisang Batu" which has not." And, as mentioned by Sulpiz Kurz, Linnaeus was in a particularly
perverse mood that day choosing to give the plant the "very
absurd" name of the "banana of the cave-dwellers" when it had
already been given the "excellent" name of the
"star-gazing" banana by Rumphius. (Incidentally, Musa
uranoscopos Lour. is quite a different thing but in its own way enigmatic). "Musa
uranoscopus" and "Musa XI, pissang batu" are a couple of Rumphius'
names from his Herbarium Amboinense of 1750 and are completely different plants, the
former being a cultivated Fe'i banana and the latter the type of Musa balbisiana
Colla. However, after Linnaeus it seems technically possible if completely illogical
to consider Musa troglodytarum as a synonym of these two completely different
plants.
Cheesman
points out that Musa troglodytarum L. refers primarily to "Musa
uranoscopus" of Rumphius but he neverthless gives it as synonym while
"reviving" Colla's Musa balbisiana. Although Colla gives Musa
troglodytarum L. as a synonym of his Musa balbisiana, he uses Rumphius'
"Musa XI pissang batu" element as his type and specifically rejects the "Musa
uranoscopus" element. (Actually, this would make more sense if Colla was
using Musa troglodytarum Blanco which according to Kurz includes Botohan or
Botoan which I think must be Butuhan and is a form of M. balbisiana.
However, I don't know whether this is even likely or not. Blanco's ed 2 was 1845 so
it might just be possible for ed 1 to have been accessible to Colla in 1820).
The association of Musa troglodytarum with the Fe'i
bananas begins of course with Rumphius' "Musa uranoscopus" but goes
on. In a rather cryptic comment on what he gives as various subspecies of M.
sapientum, Baker 1893 notes that M. Troglodytarum L. and (in synonymy) M.
Uranoscopos Rumph. "have often been applied to forms of other
species than sapientum, with a similar habit, such as M. Fehi." Then under Musa Fehi itself Baker
writes "this is M. Uranoscopos, Seem. Fl. Vit. 290 and
M. Troglodytarum, Kurz in Journ. Agric.-Hort. Soc. Ind. N. S. V, 163, in part."
Although the reference is different I think this is still Rumphius' "M.
uranoscopus".
As for "M.
Troglodytarum Kurz" I can't see that such a thing exists. Kurz mentions
three "M. troglodytarum"; i) sensu F. M. Blanco (p. 133, this
must be from the Philippines for that was where Father Blanco worked), ii) sensu Moon
(p. 155, from Sri Lanka) and iii) sensu
Linnaeus. On page 163 cited by Baker, Kurz indeed mentions M. troglodytarum
but only sensu Linnaeus. Champion gives M. troglodytarum Kurz as a
doubtful entity and synonym of Musa fehi "after Schumann".
Schumann's paper on the Musaceae in Engler's Pflanzenreich is notoriously
inaccurate.
Baker
includes all sorts of things in his extremely broad interpretation of "M.
sapientum L." It may have been proper to include the "Musa XI pissang
batu" element of M. Troglodytarum L. in a discussion of "M.
sapientum" but to drag along the "Musa uranoscopus" element
is to say the least unhelpful. It is difficult to understand the nature of the
"similar habit" of "M. sapientum" and "M. Fehi"
that would lead anyone carefully to apply the name of the first to forms of the
latter. The mere fact that they are both cultivated edible bananas won't do.
Other
uses of M. troglodytarum in the literature are, in the precise sense, not clear
to me at present.
Stover & Simmonds 1987 state that Musa
troglodytarum (no author stated) was applied to a group of cultivated clones of the
Fe'i bananas grown for fruit in East Indonesia. This could be a reference to Musa
troglodytarum L. or at least to the "M. uranoscopus" Rumph. element
of it. Stover & Simmonds 1987 caution
that the Fe'i bananas are so poorly understood that the application of Latin binomials to
them is "unwise".
According
to Huxley 1992 Musa troglodytarum (author not stated) was originally applied to
plants from Sumatra and Musa fehi (author not stated) to plants from Tahiti.
This implies a nice distinction but where, I think, none exists.
The
Fe'i bananas are a distinct group of clones originated from members of the section Australimusa.
It is possible that the Fe'is are derived exclusively from Musa maclayi but
others species including Musa jackeyi, Musa angustigemma, Musa peekelii and
possibly others may also have contributed.
As
for:
Musa
troglodytarum sensu F. M. Blanco (ex Kurz) - I don't know
Musa troglodytarum sensu Moon (ex Kurz) - I don't know
Musa troglodytarum sensu Gaertner (ex Baker) - I don't know
Musa troglodytarum S. Kurz mentioned by Baker, Schumann and J. Champion - as
mentioned above, there so such entity as Musa troglodytarum S. Kurz. |