Musa cerifera

Musa cerifera

Musa cerifera (C. A. Backer) T. Nakai, Bulletin of the Tokyo Science Museum. No. 22. II: 14 (1948).

Accepted name	Musa acuminata L. A. Colla var. zebrina (L. B. van Houtte) author not known to me or Musa acuminata subsp. acuminata at WCM.
Synonyms	1. Musa malaccensis H. N. Ridley f. cerifera C. A. Backer. 2. Musa zebrina f. cerifera C. A. Backer Handboek voor de Flora van Java 3: 137 (1924).
Authorities	I have inferred Musa acuminata var. zebrina as the accepted name but the WCM does not recognize this subsp. and effectively treats it as Musa acuminata subsp. acuminata. Synonym 1 is from Nakai 1948 but is a mistake. Synonym 2 is from Backer & Bakhuizen van den Brink 1968 and WCM The World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists Musa cerifera (Backer) Nakai, Bull. Tokyo Sci. Mus. 22: 9 (1948) and Musa zebrina f. cerifera Backer, Handb. Fl. Java 3: 137 (1924) as synonyms and Musa acuminata subsp. acuminata as the accepted name.
Section	Eumusa (Musa) 1
Distribution	Java.
Description
References	Backer 1924, Backer & Bakhuizen van den Brink 1968 : 38, Cheesman 1948b : 24, Hotta 1989 : 69, Index Kewensis, Jarret 1987, Nakai 1948 : 9 & 14, Simmonds 1956 : 466.
Comments	This seems to be a form of Musa acuminata, "afford[ing] good white wax melting at 84ºC" (Nakai citing Gorter) and used in Indonesia for making batik cloth. Nakai goes on to say that "this banana is native of Mid-Java, and formerly was cultivated much in the villages south of Bandoeng to get commercial wax. The leaves are so rich of white wax, as by touch one's hand and cloth become as white as he touched white chalk wall." Backer was the first to use forma cerifera (meaning waxy) in the Handboek voor de Flora van Java of 1924 applied to a form of Musa zebrina van Houtte ex Planchon (i.e. Musa zebrina forma cerifera). When Takenosin Nakai published his notes on the wild bananas of west Java he established Musa cerifera (C. A. Backer) T. Nakai but mistakenly based this on Musa malaccensis Ridley forma cerifera Backer. That combination does not exist but Nakai can perhaps be forgiven for "inventing" it. In Nakai's defence, all his "laborious manuscripts went to pieces [ ] by ignorant robbers" while he was interned in 1945 at the end of WWII and his 1948 paper "was complied from [his] fading memories". In 1968 Backer and Bakhuizen van den Brink reduced M. zebrina under M. acuminata and established the combination M. acuminata forma cerifera. WCM reduces Musa zebrina f. cerifera C. A. Backer and Musa cerifera (C. A. Backer) T. Nakai not under Musa acuminata forma cerifera Backer & Bakhuizen van den Brink but instead under Musa acuminata subsp. acuminata. The WCM does not recognize Musa acuminata subsp. zebrina and effectively treats it as Musa acuminata subsp. acuminata.