''Ensete'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

monocarpic Monocarpic plants are those that flower and set seeds only once, and then die. The term is derived from Greek (''mono'', "single" + ''karpos'', "fruit" or "grain"), and was first used by Alphonse de Candolle. Other terms with the same meaning ar ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. It is one of the three genera in the

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", disting ...

family,

Musaceae Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves ...

, and includes the false banana or enset ('' E. ventricosum''), an economically important food crop in Ethiopia.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Ensete'' was first described by Paul Fedorowitsch Horaninow (or Horaninov, 1796–1865) in his '' Prodromus Monographiae Scitaminarum'' of 1862 in which he created a single species, ''Ensete edule''. However, the genus did not receive general recognition until 1947 when it was revived by E. E. Cheesman in the first of a series of papers in the '' Kew Bulletin'' on the classification of the bananas, with a total of 25 species. Taxonomically, the genus ''Ensete'' has shrunk since Cheesman revived the

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

. Cheesman acknowledged that field study might reveal synonymy and the most recent review of the genus by Simmonds (1960) listed just six. Recently the number has increased to seven as the Flora of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

has, not entirely convincingly, reinstated ''Ensete wilsonii''. There is one species in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, somewhat resembling ''E. superbum'', that has not been formally described, and possibly other Asian species. It is possible to separate ''Ensete'' into its African and Asian species. ;Africa :'' Ensete gilletii'' synonym '' Ensete livingstonianum'' - native range W. Tropical Africa to Malawi :'' Ensete homblei'' - native range is SE. DR Congo to N. Zambia :'' Ensete perrieri'' – endemic to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...

but intriguingly like the Asian ''E. glaucum'' :'' Ensete ventricosum'' – enset or false banana, widely cultivated as a food plant in Ethiopia ;Asia :''

Ensete glaucum ''Ensete glaucum'', the snow banana, has also been classified as ''Musa nepalensis'', ''Ensete giganteum'', or ''Ensete wilsonii''. Distribution This gigantic monocarpic herbaceous plant is native to China, Nepal, India, Myanmar (Burma), and Th ...

'' – widespread in Asia from India to Papua New Guinea :'' Ensete superbum'' – Western Ghats of India :'' Ensete wilsonii'' –

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, China, but doubtfully distinct from ''E. glaucum'' :''Ensete'' sp. "Thailand" – possibly a new species or a disjunct population of ''E. superbum''

Extinct species

''Ensete oregonense''

Clarno Formation Clarno may refer to: Locations * Clarno, Oregon *Clarno, Wisconsin **Clarno (community), Wisconsin *Clarno Township, Lake County, South Dakota Lake County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 Uni ...

, Oregon, United States,

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

Notes

External links

* (1999)
IPNI Listing
(UNEUE)

(UNEUE)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
– The Tree Against Hunger: Enset-based Agricultural Systems in Ethiopia.

– Holes in the Safety Net
"A study on Esset as a means of existence, social organization and ethnical identification for the Gurage people"
Master's thesis, University of Tromsø (2009)
Kew Plant List
{{Taxonbar, from=Q312321 Ensete, Crops originating from Ethiopia Indomalayan realm flora Musaceae Root vegetables Staple foods Tropical fruit Tropical agriculture Zingiberales genera no:Bananfamilien

Taxonomy

Extinct species

See also

Notes

External links