Musa x paradisiaca var. granulosa

Musa x paradisiaca var. granulosa J. G. A. Forster, De Plantis Esculentis Insulam Oceani Australis Commentatio Botanica: 31 (1786).

Accepted name

Musa balbisiana L. A. Colla, Memoria della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino 25 : 384 (1820). [Memoria sul genera Musa e monografia del Medesimo 56 (1820).] and E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 3 (1): 14 (1948).

Synonyms  
Authorities  
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Distribution  
Description Figura praecedentis [Musa dorsata], teres, tenuior, virens, pulpa mucosa molli tamen et dulcescente repleta seminibus duris nigricantibus instar paeoniae seminum. Stipes altus per surculos adeo multiplicateur ut brevi tempore magnum spatium occupet.  Linnaeus hanc varietatem Musae Troglodytarum adnumerat.
References Forster 1786 : 31
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 give Linnean binomials to 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 do so and has some significance as a result. 

Of special significance is Forster's treatment of Rumphius' Pisang Batu sive Bidji which he named Musa x paradisiaca var. granulosa.  Pisang batu is Musa balbisianaIf Forster had recognised Pisang batu as a true species and if he had truly published the name Musa granulosa as a binomial then Musa granulosa would be the "true" name of Musa balbisiana.  However, Forster did not explicitly recognise Pisang batu as a true species.  True, he had some reason for rejecting Linnaeus' name for the plant, Musa troglodytarum but did not say what it was.  Musa troglodytarum L. notoriously conflates Rumphius' Musa uranoscopus and Pisang Batu.  In rejecting Linnaeus' name Forster presumably recognised that there was something wrong with it but he did not make this explicit.  Again, Forster's use of the binomial Musa granulosa 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. [Thanks to Prof. J. McNeill for putting me straight on this].

Forster's Musa granulosa is at
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jZD_aFFQYbAC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_toc_s&cad=1#PPA110,M1

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last updated 20/10/2008