Musaceae
The Musaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of the Old World. The plants are large herbs with very big leaves; the lower parts of the leaves form a false stem so they look as trees.
| Musaceae | |
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| Musa acuminata | |
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| Family: | Musaceae |
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| Musaceae distribution | |
The species of this family are native to the tropics of Africa, East Asia, Australia and South Pacific; some of them, like bananas and plantains, are grown in all tropical countries for their fruits.[1]
Description
These are perennial herbaceous plants; they are not very tall. The lower parts of the big leaves are closely packed making a false stem (pseudostem) that is not made of wood. The true stems grow underground; it is called a rhizome or a corm.[2] The false stems die after flowering and producing fruits and are replaced by new false stems rising from the underground corm.
The flowers have bracts and grow in groups (inflorescences) and are pollinated by insects, birds, bats and treeshrews.[3]
Fruits are berries with many hard seeds[2] but the fruits of commercial bananas and plantains do not have seeds because they are steriles.
Genera
The French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu created this family in 1789.[4]
There are three genera in this family:
Acceptance of Musella has varied; as of May 2013[update], the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families considers it a synonym of Ensete.[5]
Uses
In addition to banana and plantain fruits and their products (including alcohol, meal), Musa species and varieties are important sources of fibre (abacá, Manila hemp).[6]
References
- ↑ Department of Botany. "Families in the Zingiberales - Musaceae". Zingiberales Research. National Museum of Naural History - Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 4 July 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wu, Delin; Kress, W. John. "Musaceae in Flora of China". Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ↑ Stevens, P.F. "Zingiberales - Musaceae". Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 12. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ↑ Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de (1789). Genera Plantarum, secundum ordines naturales disposita juxta methodum in Horto Regio Parisiensi exaratam. Paris. OCLC 315729. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ↑ "Musella", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 22 May 2013
- ↑ Watson, L.; Dallwitz, M.J. "Angiosperm families - Musaceae". Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
Other websites
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Wikispecies has information on: Musaceae. |
- F.A. Lohmueller. 2005. The Botanical System of the Plants Archived 2011-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Monocot families (USDA)
- NCBI Taxonomy Browser
- Preliminary analysis of the literature on the distribution of wild Musa species Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
- The Musaceae - an annotated list of the species