Musa buchananii

Musa buchananii

Musa buchananii J. G. Baker, Annals of Botany 7: 207 (1893).

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 buchananii (J. G. Baker) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 102 (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 buchananii Baker, Ann. Bot. (Oxford) 7: 207 (1893) as a synonym of Ensete buchananii (Baker) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 102 (1947 publ. 1948) itself a synonym of Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948) which is given as an accepted name. First published as Musa buchanani the termination should be "ii" ICBN Art. 60 Rec. 60C.1.(b).
Section
Distribution	Tropical East Africa. M. buchananii was found by J. Buchanan in the Shiré Highlands of Nyasaland (now Malawi) in July 1885.
Description	"Nearly allied to M. Ensete, but the bracts linear-oblong, in Buchanan's specimens 1 - 1½ ft. long, 2½ - 4 in. broad. Flowers 10 in a row. Ovary cylindrical, above an inch long. Unexpanded calyx cylindrical as long as the ovary. Seeds as large as those of M. Ensete, glossy black, not tubercled". (Baker 1893).
References	Baker 1893 : 207, Baker 1894 a : 328, Baker 1898 : 329, Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 405, Champion 1967 : 39, Cheesman 1947a : 102, Fawcett 1913 : 275, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot Tropicos, Schumann 1912, 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. The type material (holotype) is in the Herbarium at RBG Kew (Shiré highlands, Buchanan no. 47 of 1885 collection). According to Baker 1893 "Sir John Kirk saw the seeds from the Shiré valley, at a height of 2,000 ft. above sea-level".