Balbis banana (Musa balbisiana)

Seedy banana or balbis banana (Musa balbisiana) is a plant species in the Musaceae, arising from a completely buried tuber, stems formed as pseudostems with heaps of leaf sheaths, succulent, erect, very large and strong, green and black in color and produce shoots in surrounding.

M. balbisiana has elongated leaves, 120 cm long, 45 cm wide, impermeable, a midrib, dark blue and green with a powdery coating.



Inflorescences grow horizontally or obliquely from the end of the stem. The female flowers are near the base and develop into fruit, the male flowers are on the uppermost bud and form buds between the leathery bracts. The fruits grow in a bunch.

The fruit is square with 3-5 corners, 5-13 cm long and 2.5-5.5 cm in diameter. The skin is very thick, strong and flexible like rubber. The flesh is white and starchy. The seeds are very large and very numerous.

This species grows best in fertile, well-drained soil with full sun exposure, tolerates dry soils and cooler temperate climates, minimum rainfall and survives long dry seasons.

The fruit has a sweet taste but is rarely eaten because of the many seeds. The fruit is often used as animal feed. All bananas contain natural sources of three sugars namely sucrose, fructose and glucose.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Musaceae
Genus: Musa L. in Sp. Pl.: 1043 (1753)
Species: Musa balbisiana Colla in Mem. Reale Accad. Sci. Torino 25: 384 (1820)
Variety: Musa balbisiana var. bakeri (Hook.f.) Häkkinen, Musa balbisiana var. balbisiana, Musa balbisiana var. bhutanensis P.Gyeltshen, Musa balbisiana var. brachycarpa (Backer) Häkkinen, Musa balbisiana var. dechangensis (J.L.Liu & M.G.Liu) Häkkinen, Musa balbisiana var. elavazhai A.Joe, Sreejith & M.Sabu, Musa balbisiana var. liukiuensis (Matsum.) Häkkinen, Musa balbisiana var. sepa-athiya Borborah, Borthakur & Tanti

PUBLICATIONS

Allen, R. (2019). "Musa balbisiana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T111907032A111907034. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T111907032A111907034.en.

Constantine, D. (2008). The origin of Musa basjoo. It's not Japanese and it's not used for fibre. The Plantsman, n.s., 7: 156-161.

Edmond de Langhe & Pierre de Maret (2004). "Tracking the banana: its significance in early agriculture". Dalam Jon G. Hather. The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change. Routledge. hlm. 372. ISBN 978-0-203-20338-5.

Figueiredo, E., Paiva, J., Stévart, T., Oliveira, F. & Smith, G.F. (2011). Annotated catalogue of the flowering plants of São Tomé and Príncipe. Bothalia 41: 41-82.

Govaerts, R. (2004). World Checklist of Monocotyledons Database in ACCESS: 1-54382. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Häkkinen, M. & Väre, H. (2008). Typification and check-list of Musa L. names (Musaceae) with nomenclatural notes. Adansonia, III, 30: 63-112.

Kuo, M.L. (ed.) (2012). Flora of Taiwan, ed. 2, Suppl.: 1-414. Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan, Second Edition, National Taiwan University.

Michel H. Porcher; Prof. Snow Barlow (July 19, 2002). "Sorting Musa names". The University of Melbourne. Retrieved January 11, 2011.

Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Perrier, Xavier; Langhe, Edmond De; Donohue, Mark; Lentfer, Carol; Vrydaghs, Luc; Bakry, Frédéric; Carreel, Françoise; Hippolyte, Isabelle; Horry, Jean-Pierre; Jenny, Christophe; Lebot, Vincent (2011-07-12). "Multidisciplinary perspectives on banana (Musa spp.) domestication". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (28): 11311–11318. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10811311P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1102001108. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3136277. PMID 21730145.

VERNACULAR NAME

English: Stone banana, Balbis banana, Sweet wild banana, Starchy banana, Mealy banana, Seeded apple banana, Seedy banana, Wild starchy banana, Wild banana type B
Indonesia: Pisang batu, Pisang biji
Java: Gedang klutuk

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