Musa mirabilis

Musa x mirabilis

Musa x mirabilis T. Nakai, Bulletin of the Tokyo Science Museum. No. 22. II: 11 & 17 (1948).

Accepted name	none - an undetermined cultivated banana or Musa x paradisiaca L., Species Plantarum : 1043 (1753).
Synonyms	Musa acuminata L. A. Colla
Authorities	The synonym is from Hotta 1989. The World Checklist of Monocotyledons gives Musa x mirabilis Nakai, Bull. Tokyo Sci. Mus. 22: 11 (1948) as a synonym of Musa x paradisiaca L., Sp. Pl.: 1043 (1753) which is listed as an accepted name.
Section
Distribution	Java.
Description
References	Hotta 1989, Index Kewensis, Nakai 1948: 17
Comments	Published as Musa mirabilis the "x" is added to indicate its presumed hybridity. This is one of several Indonesian banana cultivars given a spurious species name by Takenosin Nakai. Nakai says of it in his idiosyncratic English; "The stem of this greenish banana attains to 4 - 6 meters high, being very ordinary form of banana, but not pruinose at all. The basal 2 - 7 bracts have female flowers and others hermaphrodite flowers. The flowers are halfway persistent, so the small imperfect fruits from the hermaphrodite flowers make long tail crowned by shrinked and dried perianth at the end of spike, which gives a peculiar feature to this banana. The small imperfect fruits count more than 1000. The real fruits from female flowers taste rather nice". This description of M. mirabilis seems very like Musa chiliocarpa C. A. B. Backer more properly known as Musa (AAB group) 'Pisang seribu' except that Nakai distinguishes them as follows: Flores afeminei steriles in nodis basalibus 4 - 5 biseriales in fructu virides angulati duri inedules. Flores ceteri omnes hermaphroditi, fructus edules expermos 1000-3100 in una spica densissime collocatos fromant. Folia subtus pruinosa. Spica fructifera vulgo 2 - 3 metralis. = Musa chiliocarpa Flores basales faeminei fertiles fructus veros formantes Axis inflorescentiae velutina Folia subtus et petioli non pruinosa Pseudocaulis [sera]mineus. Bractae basales 2-7 cum floribus faemineis qui demum fructus veros formantibus, ceterae cum floribus hermaphroditis qui demum fructus parvos inedules formantibus = Musa mirabilis