Musa x paradisiaca var. acicularis

Musa x paradisiaca var. acicularis J. G. A. Forster, De Plantis Esculentis Insulam Oceani Australis Commentatio Botanica: 30 (1786).

Accepted name	none - an unidentified cultivated banana (Pisang Dsiernang or Djernang). or Musa x paradisiaca L., Species Plantarum : 1043 (1753).
Synonyms
Authorities
Section
Distribution
Description
References	Forster 1786 : 30
Comments	Georg Forster is not a major author in the Musaceae but, until his mention here, he has been a neglected one.  Forster did little more than name 13 of the 16 bananas listed by Rumphius under the general heading Musa domestica; Rumphius gave binomial names to three of them himself. However, Forster was the first post-Linnean author to assign names to Rumphius' bananas and has some small significance as a result. Forster published the name as Musa acicularis but the use of the binomial does not mean that he thought the plant was a true species.  In fact Forster treated all 16 bananas as "varieties" of Linnaeus' Musa paradisiaca. Forster's Musa acicularis is at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jZD_aFFQYbAC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_toc_s&cad=1#PPA109,M1

home     next

last updated 20/10/2008