Musa bakeri

Musa bakeri

Musa bakeri J. D. Hooker Hort. Kew & J. G. Baker, Curtis's Botanical Magazine, t. 7627 (1898).

Accepted name	none - undetermined, probably a cultivated banana.
Synonyms
Authorities	The World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists Musa bakeri Hook.f., Bot. Mag. 124: t. 7627 (1898) as an accepted name.
Section
Distribution	possibly Cochin China (doubt ex Baker) (Vietnam according to WCM).
Description	"Stem ten feet high, and eight to ten inches in diameter at the base, cylindrical, green, stoloniferous. Leaves distinctly petioled, elongate oblong, seven feet long by two feet broad, bright green on the upper surface, pale green beneath, unequal rounded to subcuneate at the base; petiole two feet long. Spike short, drooping; sterile bracts lanceolate; lower floriferous bracts oblong, half a foot long, reddish brown, and intensely glaucous on the outside. bright crimson side. Male flowers nine to twelve in a cluster, distinctly biseriate; sepals united except that the tip, an inch and a half long, teeth short, all cucullate at the tip, the two outer with an erect horn as long as the tooth, intermediate umbonate at the apex; petal whitish, oblong, three-lobed, cuspidate at the apex, half as long as the calyx. Stamens a little longer than the sepals. Unripe fruit oblong, acutely trigonous, green, narrowed gradually to the base, not distinctly stalked (in an early stage)." J. G. Baker "Tronc de 3 m. de haut, inflorescence recourbée, bractées d'un rouge brun". Chevalier 1934 Height to 3m. Leaves 2m long shining green above, paler beneath. Bracts scarlet within. RHS 1956.
References	Baker 1898, Champion 1967 : 39, Cheesman 1948a : 13, Chevalier 1934, Pollefys et al 2004, RHS 1956, WCM J. G. Baker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, v.124 Ser.3 no.54. t.7627 (1898) is at http://www.botanicus.org/page/450562 et seq.
Comments	Introduced into UK horticulture in 1890 from the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. (B. M. 7627). Chevalier says that Musa bakeri is one of "deux beaux Bananiers d'ornement sont probablement originaires du Tonkin et semblent se rattacher an groupe de M. paradisiaca-sapientum. Ce sont en tout cas des Eumusa, ils ont ete decrits d'apres des exemplaires cultivés en serre en Europe". Cheesman comments that this is of the same "affinity" as Musa rosacea N. J. von Jacquin. There is an external image of Musa bakeri at http://www.botanicus.org/page/450562