Musa fehi

Musa fehi

Musa fehi C. L. G. Bertero ex E. (D. E.) Vieillard, Annales des Sciences Naturelles; Botanique, IV, 16: 45 (1861).
Musa fei F. Muell.
Musa fei C. G. Bertero ex J. Nadeaud, Enumeration des Plantes Indigenes de l'Ile de Tahiti (1873).

Accepted name	none - undetermined cultivated form of a Fe'i banana.
Synonyms	Musa troglodytarum L.
Authorities	The authority for there not being an accepted name is Stover & Simmonds 1987. The synonymy is according to Huxley 1992 and GRIN but see comments below. The World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists Musa fehi Bertero ex Vieill., Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., IV, 16: 45 (1861) as a synonym of Musa troglodytarum L., Sp. Pl. ed. 2: 1477 (1763) which is given as an accepted name.
Section	Australimusa
Distribution	New Caledonia.
Description
References	Anon 1906 : 18, Cheesman 1949m, Graf Exotica, Griffiths 1994, GRIN, Huxley 1992, Jarret 1986, RHS 1956, Sagot 1887 : 329, Stover & Simmonds 1987, Zeven & Zhukovsky 1975.
Comments	The Australimusa section is a group of Musa species that have given rise to the only group of edible-fruit bearing bananas not derived from Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The Fe'i bananas are highly distinctive with upright inflorescences and coloured (red or purple) plant sap. However, in one respect they are just like the edible Eumusa, they have a complex origin and a confused nomenclature. According to Stover & Simmonds, Musa fehi was originally applied to a group of clones of cultivated plants grown for fruit in New Caledonia. The clones probably originated by hybridisation of a range of species possibly including Musa maclayi, M. jackeyi, M. angustigemma, M. peekelii and possibly others as yet undescribed. Stover & Simmonds give Polynesia & Melanesia as the source of the plants named Musa troglodytarum that Huxley, presumably erroneously, treats as synonymous with Musa fehi. In contrast to Stover & Simmonds, Huxley states that Musa fehi was originally applied to plants from Tahiti and Musa troglodytarum to plants from Sumatra. Simmonds & Stover caution that the Fe'i bananas are so poorly understood that the use of Latin binomials is "unwise". Musa fei F. Muell. is mentioned by G. Ude, M. Pillay, D. Nwakanma, A. Tenkouano Analysis of genetic diversity and sectional relationships in Musa using AFLP markers Theoretical and Applied Genetics 104 (8) : 1239-1245 (2002). This combination is not in Fragmenta phytographiæ Australiæ but perhaps is in another publication of von Mueller. Musa fei C. G. Bertero ex J. Nadeaud is presumably the same as Musa fehi C. L. G. Bertero ex E. (D. E.) Vieillard. Musa fei and Musa Fe’hi are transliterations.