Large, thick-stemmed, glabrous herbs with erect, unbranched stem (pseudostem) broadening towards rarely suckering base, stem formed by imbricated bases of petioles, dying after flowering
Leaves
spirally arranged, simple, large, with thick midrib and numerous pinnately-parallel nerves extending to margin; petiole expanded, sheathing
Flowers
mostly unisexual, irregular, aggregated into fans in axils of bracts, forming pendulous bunches; female or bisexual flowers within lower deciduous bracts and male flowers subtended by ± persistent upper bracts
Perianth
segments 6 in 2 whorls, but outer 3 and inner 2 reduced to teeth or lobes of a tube split along 1 side, with the third inner one free
Stamens
5 or 6, perfect, the sixth sometimes rudimentary; filaments filiform; anthers linear, 2-thecous, thecae parallel and contiguous
Ovary
inferior, 3-locular, each locule with many ovules on an axile placenta; style short; stigma 3-5-lobed
Fruit
fleshy, indehiscent, inedible, 3-locular
Seeds
subglobose with a thick hard black testa, with conspicuous hilum
x = 9 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Ensete
Horan.
Horaninov: 8, 40, t. 4 (1862)
Baker & Simmonds: 407 (1953)
Moore: 167 (1957)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 25, subtropics of Africa to Asia and New Guinea
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Ensete ventricosum
(Welw.) Cheesman (=
Musa davyae
Stapf); forest glades of NE Mpumalanga
References:
BAKER, R.E.D. & SIMMONDS, N.W. 1953. The genus
Ensete
in Africa.
Kew Bulletin
1953
HORANINOV, P.F. 1862.
Prodromus monographiae Scitaminearum
. Academia scientiarum, St. Petersburg
MOORE, H.E. 1957.
Musa
and
Ensete
: The cultivated Bananas.
Baileya
5
Copyright of the content hosted by this website remains with the
South African National Biodiversity Institute
(SANBI), unless stated otherwise.
Material from this site may be used in other media, provided that SANBI is acknowledged by the name
South African National Biodiversity Institute
(SANBI) or refer to the '
How to cite this resource
' paragraph on the Home page.
Liability disclaimer: Visitors use this site at their own risk and SANBI is not liable for any of the consequences resulting therefrom.
Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
The system is still under development, so you may find a few bugs/issues. If you do, please report it via the error reporting button available in various sections of the website or provide us with any useful feedback you may have via the ‘Give us feedback’ option available in the sidebar menu. You can create a free account for yourself by clicking on the user profile icon which will take you through to the login page. Here you can choose the ‘Create an account’ option or simply fill in your details if you have an account already. Having an account on Biodiversity Advisor will provide users with free access to biodiversity resources.
In future, Team SANBI will be able to log in using their day-to-day login details, BGIS users will be able to use their existing accounts and details, and general users will be able to log in using their LinkedIn profile, but for now you will need to create an account.
