Musa ventricosa

Musa ventricosa

Musa ventricosa F. M. J. Welwitsch, Apontamentas Phyto-Geographicos no. 45: 545 & 587, (1859).

Accepted name	Ensete ventricosum (F. M. J. Welwitsch) E. E. Cheesman, Kew Bulletin 2 (2): 101 (1947) and R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (3): 405 (1953) with correction in Kew Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953).
Synonyms	See Ensete ventricosum.
Authorities	The authority for the accepted name is Baker & Simmonds 1953 as corrected (see below). The World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists Musa ventricosa Welw., Apont.: 587 (1859) as a synonym of Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948) which is given as an accepted name.
Section
Distribution	Tropical East Africa.
Description
References	Argent 1984, Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 405, Cheesman 1947 : 101, GRIN, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot Tropicos.
Comments	This was one of a number of African Musa transferred to Ensete by Cheesman in his 1947 paper reviving the genus Ensete. It eventually became the type of Ensete (please refer to R. E. D. Baker & N. W. Simmonds, Kew Bulletin 8 (4): 574 (1953)). It is now recognised that there are no wild Musa native to Africa, only Ensete. Type: Welwitsch no. 6447, Pungo Andongo, Angola, 1857- "species ab omnibus mihi hujus generis cognitis caule basi bulboso-inflato et bracteis etiam sub statu fructifero persistentibus etc. distincta", in Herb. Kew. In Herb. Mus. Brit. are male flowers (with two additional lobes on the outer tepals, as in our Uganda material) bearing the same number and date and the note "Stem swollen above the ground, 8 - 10 ft. high." Images. There are three external images of Welwitsch's type at the Aluka website http://www.aluka.org.