Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Zingiberales > Musaceae > Ensete > Ensete ventricosum

Ensete ventricosum (Abyssinian banana)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as the Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, false banana, or ensete, is an herbaceous species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. The name Ensete ventricosum was first published in 1948 in the Kew Bulletin, 1947, p. 101. Its synonyms include Musa arnoldiana De Wild., Musa ventricosa Welw. and Musa ensete J.F.Gmel. It is native to the eastern edge of the Great African Plateau, extending northwards from the Transvaal through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to Ethiopia, and west to the Congo, being found in high rainfall forests on mountains, and along forested ravines and streams.
View Wikipedia Record: Ensete ventricosum

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Usage [2]  A fibre is obtained from the plant;
Height [2]  20 feet (6 m)
Width [2]  9.84 feet (3 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Ensete ventricosum

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
East Usambara Biosphere Reserve 222395 Tanzania  

Predators

Gorilla beringei graueri (Grauer's Gorilla)[3]
Paracoccus burnerae (oleander scale)[4]
Paraputo ensete <Unverified Name>[4]
Xenothictis sciaphila[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
3Diet of Grauer’s Gorillas in the Montane Forest of Kahuzi, Democratic Republic of Congo; Juichi Yamagiwa, Augustin Kanyunyi Basabose, Kiswele Kaleme, and Takakazu Yumoto; International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 26, No. 6, December 2005, p. 1345-1373
4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0