Musa salaccensis

Musa salaccensis H. Zollinger, Syst. Verz. Indisch. Archip. 74 (1854) nomen nudum & Pl. Exsic. Jav. no. 1353 (1854?).

Accepted name Musa salaccensis H. Zollinger, Syst. Verz. Indisch. Archip. 74 (1854). & Pl. Exsic. Jav. no. 1353 (1854?).
Synonyms
Authorities Cheesman 1947b, Simmonds 1960.

The World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists Musa salaccensis Zoll., Syst. Verz. 1: 74 (1854) as an accepted name.

Section Callimusa
Distribution Mountains of Java and Sumatra.
Description Plant stooling freely. Pseudostems slender, 1 - 3 m. high, rarely more than 10 cm. diameter at base, upper part yellowish green, base red pigmented, but not waxy.

Leaves small, petiole circa 30 -35 cm. long 2 - 24 cm. wide, base unequal [right side longest] , tip blunt ; upper side green but paler beneath, devoid of wax ; midrib purplish in colour, marginal veins purple.

Inflorescence erect ; peduncle violet, ornamented with longitudinal lines, glabrous, up to 80 cm. long. Basal flowers female, usually 4 - 5 hands, upper flowers male. Female flowers 2 - 4 per hand, in a single row ; staminodes 5, circa 3 cm. long ; stigma rounded, flat ; style 4 cm. long, white in colour. Male bud in advanced blooming ellipsoid, 14 cm. long, 4.5 cm. wide, strongly imbricate with blunt tip. Usually only one bract lifted at a time, and not revolute on fading. Male flowers 2 - 4 per bract, uniseriate ; compound tepal linear, 5 cm. long, 2 cm. wide, corrugated at tip, green from half to tip ; free tepal lanceolate, 5 cm. long 2 cm. wide, tip obtuse. Filaments 2.7 cm. long, white ; anthers light brown. Fruits 2 - 4 per hand, cylindrical , roughly 4-angled, slightly curved, 9 cm. long, 2 cm. diameter, with short pedicel. Pericarp thick, purple with green stripes along the edge. Pulp white with weak flavour. Seeds obpyriform, ornamented with circular lines, tuberculed on upper half, smooth on lower half. Each fruit contains 20 - 30 seeds.

(Nasution 1993 - [slightly edited by drc]).

References Backer & Bakhuizen 1968, Baker 1893 : 220, Champion 1967 : 42, Cheesman 1947b : 110, Cheesman 1949h : 26, Fawcett 1913 : 271, Hotta 1989, Kurz 1867, Nasution 1993 : 17 (available here), Simmonds 1960 : 204.
Comments According to Cheesman Musa salaccensis H. Zollinger is sometimes given as a synonym of Musa ornata W. Roxburgh but it is not; as Cheesman notes the two are in different sections of Musa. The confusion arose because Zollinger when naming his species added in brackets "(ornata Roxb.?)" which given the superficial similarity of the two was a reasonable query at the time according to Cheesman. Miquel in his Flora van Nederlandisch Indie put it the other way around and thereafter certain later authors added Musa ornata Roxb to the synonymy of Musa salaccensis. Although Cheesman absolves Baker of complicity, Baker (1893) and subsequently Fawcett (1913) commented that M. salaccensis was "allied" to M. rosacea, itself a common and quite incorrect synonym for M. ornata.

Images

There are three images available of M. salaccensis the first of which is not quite in agreement with the others.

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last updated 01/05/2008