Musa flavida

Musa flavida

Musa flavida M. Hotta, Journal of Japanese Botany 42 (11) : 348 (1967).

Accepted name	Musa borneensis O. Beccari var. flavida (M. Hotta) M. Häkkinen & K. Meekiong, Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 56: 218 (2005).
Synonyms
Authorities	Häkkinen & Meekiong 2005 The World Checklist of Monocotyledons gives Musa flavida M.Hotta, J. Jap. Bot. 42: 348 (1967) as a synonym of Musa borneensis var. flavida (M.Hotta) Häkkinen & Meekiong, Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 56: 218 (2005) and Musa borneensis Becc., Nelle Forest. Borneo: 622 (1902) which is listed as an accepted name.
Section	Callimusa.
Distribution	Borneo. BRUNEI. Brunei Temburong: along Sungai Lacquan, a branch of Sungai Batu Apoi, alt. ca. 50 m., riverside open place, mixed with Musa campestris, and M. tuberculata, Jan. 31, 1964, M. Hotta 13876.
Description	"Plants suckering, large, the pseudostems 4 - 6 m. tall ; petioles 70 - 90 cm. long, grooved with incurved margins, the basal part narrowly expanded with scarious margins ; leaf-blade 2.3 - 3.0 m. long, 50 - 60 cm. wide, oblong, slightly narrowed towards the apex, roundly truncate at the tip, unequally rounded or slightly cordate at the base ; inflorescence large, the peduncle and rachis minutely pubescent, basal 12 hands female ; female flowers about 5 per bract in one row ; male axis pendulous, 3 cm. in diameter, with very dense scars of bracts; male bud in advanced stage of blooming obovoid, nearly rounded at the tip, the bracts densely arranged on the rachis, slightly imbricate ; bract creamy yellow, shining, broadly ovate, rounded, shallowly dish-shaped, rather thin, leathery in texture, strongly deflexed at flowering and slightly rolled back at the apical part, soon deciduous ; male flower about 4 per bract, uniseriate, the abortive ovary about 4 mm. long, connated [with] each other at the base, the compound tepal 6 cm. long, strongly ribbed at the dorsal angles, with 3 teeth, outer lobes acute with short dorsal appendages, the central lobe acute, the free tepal lanceolate, acute, recurved outwards, transversely corrugated at the basal part, 3.5 cm. long, the stamens 5, as long as the free tepal, the filament about 2.0 - 2.5 cm. long, the anther 1.0 - 3.5 cm long ; fruit bunch large, horizontal, consisting of 12 hands of usually 5 fruits each, the fruits uniseriate ; fertile fruit and seed unknown". (Hotta 1967). [drc]
References	Cranbrook & Edwards 1994, Hotta 1967, Hotta 1989, WCM.
Comments	"In 1959 Simmonds stated on a plant of the Sect. Callimusa from Borneo, that this is "a large plant with yellow sap, large dense horizontal bunches and yellow male bracts. We have, unfortunately, been unable to raise plants at the I.C.T.A." The present new species seems to be the same with this Simmonds' plant as shown by the large size of plant and yellowish male bracts. Fruit of our specimen is not yet well developed (this plant is non parthenocarpic), but I found a few uniseriate flowers on each bract, tridentate compound tepal of male flower, and boat-shaped free tepal with acute apex. By those characters, this species is deemed as an ally of Musa borneensis". (Hotta 1967). Cranbrook & Edwards noted that Musa "flavida" is merely a yellow bracted form of the usually purple bracted Musa borneensis.