Banana family
Description
A family of monocotyledonous, large to gigantic herbs, occurring in the wet Old World tropics, with pseudo-stems of leaf sheaths (Musaceae 1).
The leaves are spirally arranged, new leaves pushing up through the pseudo stem from the meristem, with large oblong lamina, a stout midrib and numerous pinnately parallel veins extending to the margin. The inflorescence is terminal, pushing up on a peduncle in the centre of the pseudo stem. The flowers are irregular, usually unisexual, in nodal clusters, each cluster in the axil of a large and often coloured bract. Female flowers at the base of the inflorescence, male ones terminal, each with a perianth of 2 petals, one compound and lobed, the other inner one narrow. Female flowers with an inferior ovary, the male ones with 5 stamens (Musaceae 2). The fruit is an elongate berry.
There are 2 genera.
Use
The genus Musa provides the edible bananas as well as fibres.
Described species
Musa sapientum, banana
Musa acuminata, see Musa sapientum
Musa balbisiana, see Musa sapientum
Musa ensete, ensete, see Musa sapientum
Musa textilis, abaca, Manila hemp, see Musa sapientum