Musa bagshawei

Musa bagshawei

Musa bagshawei A. B. Rendle & S. Greves, Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 48: 169 [t. 506] (1910).

Accepted name	Ensete ventricosum (F. M. J. Welwitsch) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) and R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953) with correction in Kew Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953).
Synonyms	Ensete bagshawei (A. B. Rendle & S. Greves) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
Authorities	The source for the accepted name is Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (see below). The synonym is from Cheesman 1947a. The World Checklist of Monocotyledons gives Musa bagshawei Rendle & Greves, J. Bot. 48: 169 (1910) as a synonym of Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948) which is given as an accepted name.
Section
Distribution	Tropical East Africa, the type material was collected by Bagshawe in Uganda.
Description	Plant 16 - 18 ft. high; trunk 6½ ft. in circumference 6 in. above the ground. Leaves with a narrow red edging and red mid-rib, 11½ ft. long. Inflorescence drooping 2½ ft. long. Bracts dull red, acuminate, 11 in. long, 6 in. broad. Flowers 17 - 19, in two rows, under each bract. Perianth three-lobed, about 1½ in. long; free petal three-toothed, median tooth awn-like, lateral rounded, rather more than ½ in. long. Fruit light orange with a little darker pulp, 4½ - 5 in. long. Seeds thirty, black, shining. Very near to M. Laurentii. (Fawcett 1913).
References	Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 406, Champion 1967 : 39, Cheesman 1947a : 103, Fawcett 1913 : 278, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot VAST database, Rendle & Greves 1910, WCM
Comments	This was one of a number of African Musa transferred to Ensete by Cheesman in his 1947 paper reviving the genus Ensete. It was later reduced to a synonym of Ensete ventricosum by Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (please refer to R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953)). It is now recognised that there are no wild Musa native to Africa, only Ensete. Cheesman mis-spelled S. Greves' name as Greaves and this error has since been widely copied e.g. by Baker & Simmonds, at Mobot Tropicos and most recently by Lock. Fawcett got it right though. The type material (holotype) is in the Herbarium of the British Museum (Bagshawe no. 1582, 25.4.1907, Foweira etc., Unyoro, Uganda, at 3,500 ft.). Images. There are two external images of Bagshawe's type at the Aluka website http://www.aluka.org.