Ensete perrieri
| Ensete perrieri | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Zingiberales |
| Family: | Musaceae |
| Genus: | Ensete |
| Species: | E. perrieri
|
| Binomial name | |
| Ensete perrieri (Claverie) Cheesman
| |
Ensete perrieri, or the Madagascar banana, is a species of banana exclusively found in western Madagascar. The Madagascar banana is listed as critically endangered because of deforestation and climate change. Some botanists believe that the Madagascar banana is a potential source of resistance to Panama disease, which wiped out the Gros Michel banana, and threatens the Cavendish banana, which is the main banana of international commerce.[2][3]
Description
[edit | edit source]The Madagascar banana tree is a herbaceous tree.[4] It loses all of its leaves in the dry season with only a pseudostem of leaf-sheaths remaining.[5]
A typical Madagascar banana tree is 5 to 6 metres (16 to 20 ft) high, with a trunk swollen at the base into a thick tuber 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) in circumference. The roots are white, cylindrical and thick. The stem is surrounded by persistent leaf sheaths and thus takes on the appearance of a large trunk swollen at its base. It measures, on average, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in circumference at the collar, 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) a little higher (at a distance of 50 centimetres (20 in)), only 0.7 m (2 ft 4 in) at the level of the lower leaves.[6]
Uses
[edit | edit source]Because of its large seeds, it is not palatable to eat. However, it may be possible to breed edible bananas with it.[2] A traditional Malagasy use of the banana in southwest Madagascar is to grind the stems to a powder as a treatment for stomach-ache.[7]
Taxonomy
[edit | edit source]A specimen was collected in Betsiboka in 1905 by a French botanist named Pierre Claverie, and is kept in a herbarium in the National Museum of Natural History, France.[8] The Madagascar banana is named after a French botanist, Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie, and was originally classified in the genus Musa,[9] but was later reclassified as Ensete by Ernest Entwistle Cheesman.[10] The Madagascar banana is a relative of the Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum).[3]
Habitat and cultivation
[edit | edit source]Madagascar bananas are native to the dry tropical forests of western Madagascar,[4] and in 2018, it was thought by botanists at Kew Gardens that there were only three known mature Madagascar banana trees left, but seedlings have been seen.[3] The Madagascar banana has a genetic trait that allows it to be resistant to diseases.[2][3] Madagascar bananas can be found within the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve.[3]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
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External links
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