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''Musa'' is one of two or three
genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
in the family
Musaceae Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves ...
. The genus includes flowering plants producing edible
banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", disting ...
s and plantains. Around 70
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
of ''Musa'' are known, with a broad variety of uses. Though they grow as high as
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s, banana and plantain plants are not
wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...
y and their apparent "
stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
" is made up of the bases of the huge
leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ...
stalks. Thus, they are technically gigantic
herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition ...
s. ''Musa'' species are used as food plants by the
larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...
e of some
Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies, 10 percent of the total described speci ...
species, including the
giant leopard moth The giant leopard moth (''Hypercompe scribonia'') is a moth of the family Erebidae. They are distributed through North America from southern Ontario, and southern and eastern United States through New England, Mexico and south to Colombia. The ...
and other ''
Hypercompe ''Hypercompe'' is a genus of tiger moths in the family Erebidae erected by Jacob Hübner in 1819. Taxonomy Several species were formerly separated in ''Ecpantheria'', which is now regarded as a junior synonym. Species The genus includes the f ...
'' species, including '' H. albescens'' (only recorded on ''Musa''), '' H. eridanus'', and '' H. icasia''.


Description

Banana plants represent some of the largest herbaceous plants existing in the present, with some reaching up to in height (59 feet (18 meters) in the case of ''
Musa ingens The plant species ''Musa ingens'', also known as the giant highland banana or Oem, is the physically largest member of the family Musaceae and the only member of the section ''Ingentimusa''. Growing in the tropical montane forests of New Guine ...
''). The large herb is composed of a modified underground stem (rhizome), a false trunk of tightly rolled petioles, a network of roots, and a large flower spike. The false trunk is an aggregation of the basal portion of leaf sheathes; it is not until the plant is ready to flower that a true stem grows up through the sheath and droops back down towards the ground. At the end of this stem grows a peduncle (In the case of
Musa ingens The plant species ''Musa ingens'', also known as the giant highland banana or Oem, is the physically largest member of the family Musaceae and the only member of the section ''Ingentimusa''. Growing in the tropical montane forests of New Guine ...
, being the second longest peduncle known, exceeded only by
Agave salmiana ''Agave salmiana'' (also known as ''maguey pulquero'' and green maguey) is a species of the family Asparagaceae, native to central and southern Mexico. It is also reportedly naturalized in South Africa, Italy and Spain, specially in the Canary I ...
with many female flowers protected by large purple-red bracts. The extension of the stem (this part called the rachis) continues growth downward where terminal male flowers grows. The leaves originate from a pseudostem and unroll to show a leaf blade with two lamina halves. The lamina can be as much as 22 feet (seven meters) in length in the case of ''
Musa truncata Musa may refer to: Places *Mūša, a river in Lithuania and Latvia * Musa, Azerbaijan, a village in Yardymli Rayon * Musa, Iran, a village in Ilam Province * Musa, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran * Musa, Kerman, Iran * Musa, Bukan, West Azerbaija ...
'' of the
Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula ( Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The ar ...
). ''Musa'' reproduces by both sexual (seed) and asexual (suckers) processes, utilizing asexual means when producing sterile (non-seedy) fruits. Further qualities to distinguish ''Musa'' include spirally arranged leaves, fruits as berries, latex-producing cells present, Flowers with 5 connate tepals and 1 member of the inner whorl distinct, and petiole with one row of air channels.


Systematics and taxonomy


History

The genus ''Musa'' was first named by
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
in 1753. The name is a Latinization of the Arabic name for the fruit, ''mauz'' (موز). ''Mauz'' meaning ''Musa'' is discussed in the 11th-century Arabic encyclopedia ''
The Canon of Medicine ''The Canon of Medicine'' ( ar, القانون في الطب, italic=yes ''al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb''; fa, قانون در طب, italic=yes, ''Qanun-e dâr Tâb'') is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian physician-phi ...
'', which was translated to Latin in medieval times and well known in Europe. ''Muz'' is also the Turkish, Persian, and Somali name for the fruit. Some sources assert that ''Musa'' is named for Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor
Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
. According to Roger Blench, the ultimate origin of ''musa'' is in the
Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive Language family, family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as Western New Guinea, parts of Indonesia. ...
, whence they were borrowed into the Austronesian languages and across Asia, via the
Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant im ...
of India, into Persian, Greek and Arabic as a ''
Wanderwort A (, 'migrant word', plural ; capitalized like all German nouns) is a word that has spread as a loanword among numerous languages and cultures, especially those that are far away from one another, usually in connection with trade. As such, are ...
'': : The word "banana" came to English from Spanish and Portuguese, which in turn apparently obtained it from a West African language (possibly Wolof). From the time of Linnaeus until the 1940s, different types of edible
banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", disting ...
s and plantains were given Linnaean binomial names, such as ''Musa cavendishii'', as if they were species. In fact, edible bananas have an extremely complicated origin involving
hybridization Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...
,
mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...
, and finally selection by humans. Most edible bananas are seedless ( parthenocarpic), hence sterile, so they are propagated vegetatively. The giving of species names to what are actually very complex, largely asexual, hybrids (mostly of two species of wild bananas, '' Musa acuminata'' and '' Musa balbisiana'') led to endless confusion in banana
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
. In the 1940s and 1950s, it became clear to botanists that the cultivated bananas and plantains could not usefully be assigned Linnean binomials, but were better given
cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
names.


Sections

''Musa'' sectional systematics possesses a history dating back to 1887. In that year, M.P. Sagot published "Sur Le Genre Bananier", where the genus ''Musa'' was first formally classified. In this article, Sagot grouped the ''Musa'' species into three groups, although no section names were assigned to them. The grouping was based on morphological traits, establishing the trio as: # Bananas with fleshy fruit; # Ornamental bananas with upright inflorescences and bracts that were vibrantly colored; and # Bananas that were giant in size. In 1893, five years after Sagot's article, J.G. Baker made the first formal designation of ''Musa'' sections. To do so, he named three subgenera which almost paralleled the sections that had been described by Sagot. These sections were: # ''M''. subg. ''Physocaulis'' Baker: a group defined by a bract with many flowers, inedible fruits, and a bottle-shaped stem. # ''M.'' subg. ''Rhodochlamys'' Baker: brightly-colored bracts with few flowers, usually inedible fruits, and cylindrical stems. # ''M.'' subg. ''Eumusa'' Baker which possessed green, brown, or dull-violet bracts with many flowers, usually edible fruits, and cylindrical stems. After this classification, 50 years passed without revision to the banana sections. In 1947, Cheeseman reclassified the taxon based on morphological features and chromosome number. This project proposed 4 sections: # ''M''. sect. ''Eumusa'' Cheesman (2n = 2x = 22) # ''M''. sect. ''Rhodochlamys'' (Baker) Cheesman (2n = 2x = 22) # ''M''. sect. ''Australimusa'' Cheesman (2n = 2x = 20) # ''M.'' sect. ''Callimusa'' Cheesman (2n = 2x = 20) The addition of another ''Musa'' section came in 1976 in G.C.G. Ardent's "The wild bananas of Papua New Guinea". The added section, ''M''. sect. ''Ingentimusa'' Ardent, was based on a single species, ''Musa ingens''. This designation put the number of sections in ''Musa'' at five: ''Eumusa'', ''Rhodochlamys'', ''Callimusa'', ''Australimusa'', and ''Ingentimusa''. In the 21st century, genomics have become cheaper, more efficient, and more accurate, and ''Musa'' genetic research has increased exponentially. Research was conducted around a diversity of genomic markers (cpDNA, nrDNA, rDNA, introns, various spacers, etc.). The results of many of these studies suggested that the five sections of ''Musa'' defined by morphology (and listed above) were not monophyletic.Häkkinen, Markku. "Reappraisal of Sectional Taxonomy in Musa (Musaceae)." Taxon, vol. 62, no. 4, 2013, pp. 809–813., doi:10.12705/624.3. Based on the incorrect section grouping, Markku Häkkinen proposed another reclassification of the ''Musa'' sections in 2013. Using a multitude of genetic evidence and markers from other studies, Häkkinen suggested the reduction of five ''Musa'' sections into two: ''Musa'' and ''Callimusa''. Unlike sectional classifications of the past, this hypothesis was based on genetic markers rather than morphological features or chromosome number. The two groups were generally formed by the clustering of the previously defined groups: *''Musa'' sect. ''Rhotochlamys'' and ''M''. sect. ''Eumusa''  became ''M.'' sect. ''Musa'' *''M''. sect. ''Ingetimusa'', ''M''. sect. ''Callimusa'' and ''M''. sect. ''Australimusa''  became ''M''. sect. ''Callimusa'' The advance of genomic analysis technologies and further data on the relatedness of ''Musa'' species, formulated Häkkinen's two sections and later corroborated them as correct subcategories for the genus. The history of ''Musa'' sections provides an example of genomics superseding morphological evidence and thus classifications.


Species

The
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected pla ...
accepts 68 species and two primary hybrids, , which are listed below. The assignment to sections is based on GRIN (where this gives the species), regrouped according to Wong et al.


Section ''Callimusa'' (incorporating ''Australimusa'')

and indicate known placement in the former sections ''Australimusa'' and ''Callimusa'', respectively. * ''M.'' × ''alinsanaya'' R.V.Valmayor * ''M. azizii'' Häkkinen * ''M. barioensis'' Häkkinen * ''M. bauensis'' Häkkinen & Meekiong !-- Systematics and Biodiversity 2 (2): 169-173 --> * ''M. beccarii'' N.W.Simmonds ref group=Note name=Note2/> * ''M. boman'' Argent * ''M. borneensis''
Becc. Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, particularly New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. His author abbrevia ...
* ''M. bukensis'' Argent *'' M. velutina'' * ''M. campestris'' Becc. * ''M. coccinea'' Andrews – scarlet banana * ''M. exotica'' R.V.Valmayor * ''M. fitzalanii'' F.Muell.
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
* ''M. gracilis'' Holttum * ''M. hirta'' Becc. * ''M. insularimontana'' Hayata * ''M. jackeyi'' W.Hill * ''M. johnsii'' Argent * ''M. lawitiensis'' Nasution & Supard. * ''M. lokok'' Geri & Ng * ''M. lolodensis'' Cheesman * ''M. maclayi'' F.Muell. ex Mikl.-Maclay * ''M. monticola'' M.Hotta ex Argent * ''M. muluensis'' M.Hotta * ''M. paracoccinea'' A.Z.Liu & D.Z.Li * ''M. peekelii'' Lauterb. * ''M. salaccensis'' Zoll. ex Backer * ''M. textilis'' Née – Abacá * ''M.'' × ''troglodytarum'' L. – the cultivated Fe'i bananas * ''M. tuberculata'' M.Hotta * ''M. violascens'' Ridl. * ''M. viridis'' R.V.Valmayor et al. * ''M. voonii'' Häkkinen


Section ''Ingentimusa''

* ''M. ingens'' N.W.Simmonds


Section ''Musa'' (incorporating ''Rhodochlamys'')

* ''M. acuminata'' Colla – wild seeded banana, one of the two main ancestors of modern edible banana cultivars ** ''M. acuminata'' subsp. ''zebrina'' ''M. sumatrana''/small> – blood banana * ''M. aurantiaca'' G.Mann ex Baker * ''M. balbisiana'' Colla – wild seeded banana, one of the two main ancestors of modern edible banana cultivars * ''M. banksii'' F.Muell. * ''M. basjoo'' Siebold & Zucc. ex Iinuma – Japanese fiber banana, hardy banana * ''M. cheesmanii'' N.W.Simmonds * ''M. chunii'' Häkkinen * ''M. griersonii'' Noltie * ''M. itinerans'' Cheesman * ''M. laterita'' Cheesman * ''M. mannii'' H.Wendl. ex Baker * ''M. nagensium'' Prain * ''M. ochracea'' K.Sheph. * ''M. ornata'' Roxb. * ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' L. = ''M. acuminata'' × ''M. balbisiana'' – many of the cultivated edible bananas * ''M. rosea'' Baker * ''M. rubinea'' Häkkinen & C.H.Teo * ''M. rubra'' Wall. ex Kurz * ''M. sanguinea'' Hook.f. * ''M. schizocarpa'' N.W.Simmonds * ''M. siamensis'' Häkkinen & Rich.H.Wallace * ''M. sikkimensis'' Kurz * ''M. thomsonii'' (King ex Baker) A.M.Cowan & Cowan * ''M. truncata'' Ridl. * ''M. velutina'' H.Wendl. & Drude – pink banana * ''M. yunnanensis'' Häkkinen & H.Wang – Yunnan banana, wild forest banana * ''M. zaifui'' Häkkinen & H.Wang


Section undetermined or unknown

* ''M. arfakiana'' Argent * ''M. arunachalensis'' A.Joe, Sreejith & M.Sabu * ''M. celebica'' Warb. ex K.Schum. * ''M. juwiniana'' Meekiong * ''M. kattuvazhana'' K.C.Jacob * ''M. lanceolata'' Warb. ex K.Schum. * ''M. lutea'' R.V.Valmayor et al. * ''M. sakaiana'' Meekiong et al. * ''M. shankarii'' Subba Rao & Kumari * ''M. splendida'' A.Chev. * ''M. tonkinensis'' R.V.Valmayor et al. * ''M. yamiensis'' C.L.Yeh & J.H.Chen


Formerly placed here

*'' Ensete davyae'' (Stapf) Cheesman (as ''M. davyae'' Stapf) *'' Ensete gilletii'' (De Wild.) Cheesman (as ''M. gilletii'' De Wild. or ''M. martretiana'' A.Chev.) *''
Ensete glaucum ''Ensete glaucum'', the snow banana, has also been classified as ''Musa nepalensis'', ''Ensete giganteum'', or ''Ensete wilsonii''. Distribution This gigantic monocarpic herbaceous plant is native to China, Nepal, India, Myanmar (Burma), and Th ...
'' (Roxb.) Cheesman (as ''M. glauca'' Roxb.) *'' Ensete lasiocarpum'' (Franch.) Cheesman (as ''M. lasiocarpa'' Franch.) – also placed in a separate genus as ''Musella lasiocarpa'' (Franch.) C.Y.Wu ex H.W.Li *'' Ensete livingstoniana'' (J. Kirk) Cheesman (as ''M. livingstoniana'' J.Kirk) *'' Ensete perrieri'' (Stapf) Cheesman (as ''M. perrieri'' Claverie) *'' Ensete superbum'' (Roxb.) Cheesman (as ''M. superba'' Roxb.) *'' Ensete ventricosum'' (Welw.) Cheesman (as ''M. arnoldiana'' De Wild., ''M. ensete'' J.F.Gmel. or ''M. ventricosum'' (Welw.) Cheesman) *'' Heliconia bihai'' (L.) L. (as ''M. bihai'' L.)


Cultivated bananas

A number of distinct groups of plants bearing edible fruit have been developed from species of ''Musa''. In English, fruits which are sweet and used for dessert are usually called "bananas", whereas starchier varieties used for cooking are called "plantains", but these terms do not have any botanical significance. By far the largest and now the most widely distributed group of cultivated bananas is derived from section ''Musa'', particularly and , either alone or in various hybrid combinations. The next but much smaller group is derived from members of section ''Callimusa'' (previously classified as ''Australimusa'') and is restricted in importance to
Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...
. Of even more restricted importance are small groups of hybrids from
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
; a group from section ''Musa'' to which '' Musa schizocarpa'' has also contributed, and a group of hybrids between section ''Musa'' and section ''Callimusa''. Banana and plantains are the fourth most produced food globally surpassed only by the staple crops of
rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
,
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
and
maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...
.


Properties

Plants of the ''Musa'' spp. including roots, flowers and fruits have been used in the
folk medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...
cultures of Africa, Asia, India and the Americas. Modern studies examining the properties of the fruits have found diversity of bioactive compounds among genotypes compared with commercially grown
cultivars A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
.


Section ''Musa'' cultivars

When the Linnaean binomial system was abandoned for cultivated bananas, an alternate genome-based system for the nomenclature of edible bananas in section ''Musa'' was devised. Thus, the plant previously known by the "species" name ''Musa cavendishii'' became ''Musa'' (AAA Group) 'Dwarf Cavendish'. The "new" name shows clearly that 'Dwarf Cavendish' is a triploid, with three sets of chromosomes, all derived from ''Musa acuminata'', which is designated by the letter "A". When ''Musa balbisiana'' is involved, the letter "B" is used to denote its genome. Thus, the cultivar 'Rajapuri' may be called ''Musa'' (AAB Group) 'Rajapuri'. 'Rajapuri' is also a triploid, expected to have two sets of chromosomes from ''Musa acuminata'' and one from ''Musa balbisiana''. In the genome of edible bananas from section ''Musa'', combinations such as AA, BB, ABB, BBB and even AAAB can be found.


Fe'i-type cultivars

No such nomenclature system has been developed for the group of edible bananas derived from section ''Callimusa''. This group is known generally as the "Fe'i" or "Fehi" bananas, and numerous cultivars are found in the South Pacific region. They are very distinctive plants with upright fruit bunches, featuring in three of
Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
's paintings. The flesh can be cooked before eating and is bright orange, with a high level of
beta carotene Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labio ...
. Fe'i bananas are no longer very important for food, as imported foods have grown in popularity, although some have ritual significance. Investigations are under way to use the Fe'i
karat banana Karat bananas are local cultivars of Fe'i banana found in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. The name originates from their bright orange flesh, unusually rich in β-carotene. They are often treated as a single cultivar, i.e. a distinct cul ...
s (the name derives from "
carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', na ...
" due to the intense orange-yellow color of the fruit) in prevention of childhood blindness in
Pohnpei Pohnpei "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')" (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic: ''*Fawo ni pei)'' is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnp ...
. Fe'i bananas probably derive mainly from '' Musa maclayi'', although their origins are not as well understood as the section ''Musa'' bananas. Cultivars can be formally named, as e.g. ''Musa'' (Fe'i Group) 'Utafun'.


Other uses

In addition to the edible fruits, the flowers can be eaten cooked, and the heart of the plant (like heart of palm) can be eaten raw or cooked. Additionally, the rootstocks and leaf sheaths of some species can be cooked and eaten.


See also

*''
Ensete ''Ensete'' is a genus of monocarpic flowering plants native to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. It is one of the three genera in the banana family, Musaceae, and includes the false banana or enset ('' E. ventricosum''), an economically impor ...
'' (false bananas); for more information about ''Musella'', also see '' Musella lasiocarpa'' *
True plantains "True" plantains are a group of cultivars of the genus ''Musa'' ( bananas and plantains) placed in the African Plantain subgroup of the AAB chromsome group. Although "AAB" and "true plantain" are often used interchangeably, plantains are just ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* Hedrick, U.P. (ed.) (1919):
Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World
'. J.B. Lyon Co., Albany. * Nelson, S.C.; Ploetz, R.C. & Kepler, A.K. (2006)
''Musa'' species (banana and plantain)
*


External links


Musapedia, page on Musa wild species

Musapedia, page on Musa sections

Musapedia, page on the diversity of banana cultivars





Musarama, banana image bank
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Musa (Genus) Zingiberales genera Musaceae