Musa fecunda

Musa fecunda

Musa fecunda O. Stapf, Journal of the Linnean Society (Bot.) 37: 526 (1906).

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 fecundum (O. Stapf) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 103 (1947).
Authorities	The accepted name is from Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (see below). The synonym is from Cheesman 1947a. The World Checklist of Monocotyledons gives Musa fecunda Stapf, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 37: 528 (1906) (synonym Ensete fecundum (Stapf) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 103 (1947 publ. 1948)) as a synonym of Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948) which is given as the accepted name.
Section
Distribution	Uganda, 5,000 ft. altitude.
Description	Trunk 2 ft. in diameter at base. Leaf midribs red. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts lanceolate-oblong, subacuminate, about 1 ft. 4 in. long and 5 in. broad. Flowers very numerous. Perianth linear-oblong, apex obtuse three-toothed, 2 in. long, with two awl-shaped strips on the inside, nearly 1 in. long ; free petal three-lobed, about ¾ in. long, the median lobe awl-shaped, lateral lobes rounded. Stamens 5. Fruits very numerous (418 counted in one bunch). Seeds, a little over ½ in. in diameter, flattened-globular. (Stapf 1906, Fawcett 1913).
References	Aluka, Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 406, Champion 1967 : 40, Cheesman 1947a : 103, Fawcett 1921 : 274, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot Tropicos, Stapf 1906: 528.
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. Type (holotype): M. T. Dawe no. 521, Isunga, Toro, Uganda; in Herbarium, RBG Kew. Images: There is one external image of Dawe's type of Musa fecunda at the Aluka website http://www.aluka.org.