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Madagascar banana
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

The Madagascar banana or Ensete perrieri is a species of False banana exclusively found in western Madagascar. The Madagascar banana is listed as critically endangered because of deforestation and climate change. However, some botanists believe that only the Madagascar banana can save the Cavendish banana from Panama disease, which wiped out the Gros Michel banana, a commercial crop.

Description

The Madagascar banana is yellow when ripe, and green when not, just like the Cavendish banana but much firmer, with large seeds inside the flesh, and has thinner skin, making it easier to peel. A typical Madagascar Banana tree is 5 to 6 meters high, with a trunk swollen at the base into a thick tuber 2.50 meters in circumference. It is a species without suckers, which, from April to October, is reduced to the trunk and sheaths, because no blade persists during the dry season. 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 meters in circumference at the collar, 2.50m a little higher (at a distance of 50 centimeters), only 0.70m at the level of the lower leaves.

Uses

Because of its large seeds, it is not palatable to eat. However, it may be possible to breed edible bananas with it.

Taxonomy

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. It was originally classified in the genus Musa, but, was later reclassified as Ensete by Ernest Entwistle Cheesman. The Madagascar banana is a wild relative of the Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum), and is closely related to the Cavendish banana, meaning, they are triploids, belonging to the AAA group of banana cultivars.

Habitat and cultivation

Madagascar bananas are native to the dry tropical forests of western Madagascar, 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. The Madagascar banana has a genetic trait that allows them to be resistant to diseases. Madagascar bananas can be found within the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve.

See also

• Red banana
• Blue Java banana
• Flora of Madagascar

References

1. ^ "Yes! We have no bananas: Why the song may come true again". BBC. Helen Briggs. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
2. ^ "The critically endangered Madagascar Banana". Kew. Richard Allen , Dr James J Clarkson and Dr Hélène Ralimanana. Retrieved 11 December 2024. Only five mature individuals of E. perrieri have been previously identified in the whole of Madagascar, and a recent survey has suggested that now only three of these may be left (Analavelona, Ampefy and Maintirano areas).
3. Annales du Muśee colonial de Marseille (in French). Vol. ser.2:v.7. Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Sciences. 1909. pp. 74–86.
4. "Specimen: H. Perrier de la Bâthie - 1796 - none".
5. ^ "Occurrence Detail 4061008915". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
6. Benjamin, Emerson (2018-09-06). Biotechnology for Fruit Crop Improvement. Scientific e-Resources. p. 305. ISBN 978-1-83947-181-0.
7. Cheesman, E. E. (1947). "Classification of the Bananas: The Genus Ensete Horan". Kew Bulletin. 2 (2): 97–106. doi:10.2307/4109206. ISSN 0075-5974.

External links

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Category Production

• Ensete
• Flora of Madagascar