Musa violacea

Musa violacea

Musa violacea Hort. ex J. G. Baker, Annals of Botany 7: 212 (1893).
Musa violacea Hort. auct. non Baker

Accepted name	none - an undetermined edible banana.
Synonyms
Authorities
Section
Distribution
Description	"Stem, fruit and also often leaves beneath more or less tinged with violet." Baker 1893.
References	Baker 1893: 212,
Comments	A name listed by J. G. Baker as a "variety" of Musa sapientum.

Accepted name	none
Synonyms
Authorities	Musa violacea is an invalid name as pointed out by Argent 1984.
Section
Distribution
Description
References	Argent 1984, B&T Seeds, Häkkinen & Sharrock 2002, RHS 1956, Shepherd 1999 : 68, Simmonds 1962 : 62.
Comments	The name Musa violacea is still encountered in horticulture applied to seed or to Musa plants (see returns at Google for examples). Whatever these are they are not the plant described by Baker which is a seedless cultivated banana. I have heard anecdotally of plants of Ensete ventricosum being sold as "Musa violacea" but usually the seed and seedlings offered commercially under that name seem to be forms or hybrids of Musa ornata. Musa ornata is an adaptable and ornamental species from India that was long ago introduced to South America from where some "Musa violacea" originates. An intriguing possibility is that some of the "Musa violacea" encountered today derives from a man-made hybrid between Musa flaviflora and Musa velutina. This cross was made in Trinidad at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture as part of a study of Musa cytogenetics. According to Simmonds 1962, "selections [of M. flaviflora x M. velutina] were so vigorous and ornamental that they were distributed to various tropical botanical gardens as being of potential horticultural interest". More intriguingly still, according to Shepherd 1999, is that wild Musa ornata from India is itself almost certainly "a relic of a hybrid swarm between M. flaviflora and M. velutina!" [Shepherd's emphasis]. See also Musa ornata.