1318.000 Musa L. - Bananas

Fayaz, F. (2011) Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants Firefly Books, New Zealand

Description of the genus

Herbs, perennial, tufted, underground stems (corms) rhizomatous, stoloniferous; stems remaining short until flowering; pseudo stems tall, clustered, each composed of closely packed leaf sheaths, base slightly swollen. Leaves large, oblong, un-lobed, splitting with age; petiole long, base enlarged into a sheath. Inflorescence solitary, terminal, erect or pendent, lax, not conical; bracts green, brown, red, dull purple or, rarely, yellow, usually deciduous. All flowers functionally sterile. Compound tepal tubular, soon splitting to base on 1 side, apex 5-toothed. Fruit berries, fleshy, cylindric, often elongate. Seeds numerous irregularly globose.

Derivation of name: Named for Antonius Musa, physician to Octavius Augustus, first emperor of Rome.

Worldwide: 63 species in Tanzania, tropical and sub-tropical Asia, West Pacific.

Zimbabwe: 3 cultivated taxa.

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Links to cultivated taxa    View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesContent
ornata Roxb.
sp. (Ornamental bananas)
× paradisiaca L.Image

Other sources of information about Musa:

Our websites:

Flora of Malawi: cultivated Musa
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Musa
Flora of Zambia: cultivated Musa
Flora of Zimbabwe: Musa

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Musa
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Musa
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Musa
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Musa
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Musa
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Musa
JSTOR Plant Science: Musa
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Musa
Plants of the World Online: Musa
Tropicos: Musa
Wikipedia: Musa

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2002-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Zimbabwe: Cultivated plants: genus page: Musa.
https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/cult/genus.php?genus_id=2069, retrieved 10 December 2024

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