Musa ventricosa

Musa ventricosa
F. M. J. Welwitsch, Apontamentas Phyto-Geographicos no. 45: 545 & 587, (1859) and J. G. Baker in Ann. Bot. 7: 206 (1893).

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 (please see link below).
Distribution Tropical East Africa.
Description  
References Argent 1984, Baker & Simmonds 1953 : 405, Cheesman 1947 : 101, GRIN, Lock 1993 : 3, Mobot Tropicos.
Comments One of a number African Musa transferred to Ensete by Cheesman and eventually absorbed via Ensete edule into the highly polymorphic Ensete ventricosum.

With the possible exception of Musa acuminata on Pemba Island off the Tanzanian coast there are no wild African Musa, see Musa acuminata.

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."



 


last revision 23 April 2003