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Musa balbisiana

(Banana)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Chinese:

Jiao, Ye Jiao

Common Names in Danish:

Melet Banan

Common Names in Dutch:

Meelbanaan

Common Names in English:

Banana, Balbis Banana, Banana Flower (Ingredient), Banana Inflorescence (Ingredient), Diploid Wild Banana, Mealy Banana, Plantain, Seedy Banana, Starchy Banana, Wild Banana Type B, Wild Starchy Banana

Common Names in Finnish:

Jauhobanaani

Common Names in French:

Banane Farineuse

Common Names in German:

Mehlbanane

Common Names in Italian:

Banana Farinosa

Common Names in Malay:

Biu Batu (Indonesia - Bali), Pisang Batu

Common Names in Portuguese:

Bananeira-Do-Paraíso, Bananeira-Pão

Common Names in Spanish:

Banano Harinoso

Common Names in Thai:

Kluai Taanee

Description

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Family Musaceae

Herbs perennial or monocarpic , growing from sympodial rhizomes or a massive, sympodial corm. Pseudostems composed of closely packed leaf sheaths . Leaves spirally arranged , petiolate ; leaf blade entire, pinnately veined. Inflorescence terminal or rarely axillary , cymose . Bracts spirally arranged, often brilliantly colored , spathelike, large. Flowers bisexual or unisexual by abortion , zygomorphic. Perianth in 2 whorls; 3 outer tepals and 2 inner ones united into a compound tepal; third inner tepal free. Stamens 5, free ; anthers 2-loculed. Pistil 1; ovary inferior, 3-loculed; ovules numerous per locule, anatropous ; placentation axile . Style simple or capitate. Fruit a berry, fleshy or leathery and dry, indehiscent. Seeds hard, not arillate ; embryo straight, surrounded by a well-developed endosperm and a mealy perisperm .

Three genera and ca. 40 species: tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia; three genera (one endemic) and 14 species (four endemic, three introduced ) in China.[1]

Genus Musa

Underground stems (corms) rhizomatous , short, pseudostems clustered, [0.5--]3--10 m. Leaf blades unlobed (older leaves often split to midrib ), oblong or oblong-elliptic, [0.6--]2--3 ´ 0.3--0.6 m. Inflorescences pendent [erect ]; pistillate flowers crowded, numerous ; bracts of staminate flowers imbricate, forming budlike mass at apex of inflorescence. Berries cylindric , usually ± curved , weakly angled in cross section , [10--]20--35 cm, soft, fleshy . x = 10, 11.

Species ca. 30 (1 species and 1 stable h: introduced ; Asia (India to Japan and Indonesia), Australia (Queensland), Pacific Islands (and Oceania) ; often persisting around gardens and plantations in North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Africa, Oceania Pacific Islands (Oceania).

Species of Musa are very important economically throughout the wet tropics. The fruits of several species are edible; they may be sweet (bananas) or starchy (plantains), and may be eaten raw or cooked. Some species are important fiber sources, especially M. textilis Née (abacá or Manila-hemp), and others are grown as ornamentals in subtropical and tropical regions . In addition, the plants have many minor uses in the tropics: banana leaves are used for wrapping and various other purposes, and the corms, the interior of the pseudostems, and the buds of staminate flowers are eaten as vegetables. Bananas used in North America are almost always sweet-fruited cultivars, imported from Central America to be eaten raw or used in cooking.

Prior to 1948, the taxonomy of cultivated bananas was not understood. Since then, it has become clear that most of the cultivated bananas are parthenocarpic diploids, triploids, and tetraploids (2n = 22, 33, 44) derived either from Musa acuminata Colla, M. balbisiana Colla, or hybrids between them (M. ´ paradisiaca Linnaeus). The most common crop bananas in North and Central America are triploid races of M. acuminata (genotype AAA) and triploid M. paradisiaca with two sets of chromosomes from M. acuminata and one from M. balbisiana (genotype AAB). Those two types are very similar morphologically; distinguishing them reliably requires numerical scoring of a large number of characters from the pseudostem, petiole , peduncle, bracts of staminate flowers, and staminate and pistillate flowers (N. W. Simmonds and K . Shepherd 1955), many of which are very difficult to score on herbarium material . The ranges given below, based on herbarium specimens, are tentative, and need to be checked in the field .[2]

Physical Description

Species Musa balbisiana

Pseudostems clumped, yellow-green, often with large, black markings, ca. 6 m. Petiole 60--75 cm, margin open, ca. 2 cm wide, often closed when young; leaf blade adaxially green and slightly pruinose or not, ovate-oblong, ca. 2.9 m × 90 cm, base auriculate , asymmetric . Inflorescence pendulous, ca. 2.5 m; peduncle and rachis glabrous . Bracts of bisexual and male flowers adaxially purple-red, abaxially brownish purple to yellow-green and pruinose, ovate to lanceolate, persistent , apex obtuse , reflexed after flowering; bracts of female flowers deciduous. Male flowers up to 20 per bract, in 2 rows . Compound tepal adaxially pale purple, abaxially pale purple-white, 4--5 cm, striate , teeth yellow to orange; free tepal milky white, translucent , obovate , ca. 1/2 as long as compound tepal, apex emarginate , shortly mucronate-apiculate. Infructescence pendulous, with ca. 8 clusters (œhands) each of 15 or 16 berries in 2 rows. Berries gray-green, obovoid , ca. 13 × 4 cm, distinctly angled at maturity, base narrowed into a stalk ca. 2.5 cm, apex contracted or not into a short, angled column ca. 2 cm. Seeds numerous , brown, oblate , 5--10 mm in diam., minutely warty. 2 n = 22. [source]

Habit: Evergreen .

Flowers: Bloom Period: June, July, August. • Flower Color: red-purple

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 8-10' tall.

Habitat

Ravines in evergreen forests ; ca. 1100 m. [3].

Biology

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Growth

Culture: Space 36-48" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

M. lushanensis J. L. Liu • M. luteola J. L. Liu • M. seminifera Loureiro. • Musa dechangensis J. L. Liu & M. G. Liu

Notes

Publishing author : Colla Publication : Mem. Gen. Musa 56

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 21-Jun-2005

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Musa

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 69 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

M. acuminata (Blood Banana) · M. acuminata microcarpa (Small-Fruited Wild Banana) · M. acuminata siamea (Thai Wild Banana) · M. acuminata 'Zebrina' (Zebrina Blood Banana) · M. acuminata 'Dwarf Cavendish' (Dwarf Cavendish Dwarf Banana) · M. acuminata 'Dwarf Namwah' (Dwarf Banana) · M. acuminata 'Dwarf Namwah Pearl' (Variegated Dwarf Banana) · M. acuminata 'Enano Gigante' (Dwarf Giant Banana) · M. acuminata 'High Color Mini' (Dwarf Banana) · M. acuminata 'Ice Cream' (Ice Cream Banana) · M. acuminata 'Java Blue' (Dwarf Banana) · M. acuminata 'Lacatan' (Lacatan Banana) · M. acuminata 'Lady Finger' (Banana) · M. acuminata 'Novak' (Banana) · M. acuminata 'Rajapuri' (Banana) · M. acuminata 'Super Dwarf' (Banana) · M. acuminata 'Williams' (Dwarf Banana) · M. balbisiana (Banana) · M. basjoo (Hardy Fiber Banana) · M. bihai (Bastard Plantain) · M. coccinea (Banana) · M. fehi (Hawaiian Ornamental Banana) · M. fitzalanii (Daintree´s River Banana (Australia)) · M. glauca (Seeded Sweet Banana) · M. halabanensis (West Sumatra Wild Banana) · M. itinerans (Yunnan Banana) · M. jackeyi (Johnstone River Banana (Australia)) · M. nana (Dwarf Banana) · M. nepalensis (Nepal Banana) · M. ornata (Banana) · M. ornata 'Milky Way' (Milky Way Flowering Banana) · M. paradisiaca (French Plantain) · M. paradisiaca normalis (French Plantain) · M. paradisiaca var. paradisiaca (Banana) · M. paradisiaca var. sapientum (French Plantain) · M. salaccensis (Javanese Wild Banana) · M. sikkimensis (Darjeeling Banana) · M. sumatrana 'Rojo' (Red Banana Tree) · M. textilis (Abaca) · M. troglodytarum (Fe'i Banana) · M. troglodytarum var. rubrifolia (Fe´i Banana) · M. uranoscopos (Banana) · M. velutina (Hairy Banana) · M. × paradisiaca (French Plantain) · M. x paradisiaca 'Mysore' (Ae-Ae) · M. x paradisiaca 'Saba' (Papaya Banana) · M. zebrina 'Rojo' (Blood Banana) · M. 'African Rhino Horn' (Banana) · M. 'Bordelon' (Banana) · M. 'Cardaba' (Banana) · M. 'Double Mahoi' (Banana) · M. 'Dwarf Orinoco' (Dwarf Orinoco Banana) · M.'Dwarf Puerto Rican' (Dwarf Puerto Rican Banana) · M. 'Dwarf Red' (Banana) · M. 'FHIA-21' (Banana) · M. 'Giant' (French Plantain) · M. 'Goldfinger' (Banana) · M. 'Gran Nain' (Banana) · M. 'Kru' (Banana) · M. 'Little Prince' (Banana) · M. 'Manzano' (Apple Banana) · M. 'Monkey Fingers' (Banana) · M. 'Pitogo' (Banana) · M. 'Praying Hands' (Praying Hands Banana) · M. 'Rajapuri' (Rajapuri Banana) · M. 'Red Iholena' (Banana) · M. 'Rowe Red' (Banana) · M. 'Thousand Fingers' (Banana) · M. 'Tuu Ghia' (Banana)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 06, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Delin Wu & W. John Kress "Musaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 314. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Musa". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Musa balbisiana". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 317. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

Curator for this page: David Constantine. Date last reviewed: 12/30/1899

Last Revised: 7/15/2012