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Callimusa
''Musa'' is one of three genera in the family Musaceae. The genus includes 83 species of flowering plants producing edible bananas and plantains, and fiber (abacá), used to make paper and cloth. Though they grow as high as trees, banana and plantain plants are not woody and their apparent "stem" is made up of the bases of the huge leaf stalks. Thus, they are technically gigantic herbaceous plants. Description Banana plants are among the largest extant herbaceous plants, some reaching up to in height or in the case of ''Musa ingens''. The large herb is composed of a modified underground stem (rhizome), a false trunk or pseudostem formed by the basal parts of tightly rolled leaves, a network of roots, and a large flower spike. A single leaf is divided into a leaf sheath, a contracted part called a petiole, and a terminal leaf blade. The false trunk is an aggregation of leaf sheaths; only when the plant is ready to flower does a true stem grow up through the sheath and droop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abacá
Abacá ( ; ), also known as Manila hemp, is a species of banana, ''Musa textilis'', endemic to the Philippines. The plant grows to , and averages about . The plant has great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber extracted from the leaf-stems. The lustrous fiber is traditionally hand-loomed into various indigenous textiles (abaca cloth or medriñaque) in the Philippines. They are still featured prominently as the traditional material of the barong tagalog, the national male attire of the Philippines, as well as in sheer lace-like fabrics called ''nipis'' used in various clothing components. Native abaca textiles also survive into the modern era among various ethnic groups, like the ''t'nalak'' of the T'boli people and the ''dagmay'' of the Bagobo people. Abaca is also used in traditional Philippine millinery, as well as for bags, shawls, and other decorative items. The hatmaking straw made from Manila hemp is called ''tagal'' or ''tagal straw''. The fiber is also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
