Musaceae
The banana family ( Musaceae ) are a family in the order of the ginger -like ( Zingiberales ) within the monocot plants. This small family includes only the three genera Musa, Ensete and the monotypic genus Musella with a total of about 35 to 42 species. The original home is the Old World. But today you can find banana varieties in the frost- free areas around the world. There are a number of species and hybrids, whose varieties are used. Especially the banana is known as tropical fruit. In tropical countries, the banana fruits play an important role as a vegetable or starch side dish. In addition, Musa and Ensete species are used for fiber production, and many other uses are known. From Ensete ventricosum vegetative plant parts are eaten cooked. Some species and varieties of all three species are used as ornamental plants.
- 4.1 Notes and references
Description
Habit and foliage leaves
There are very large, mostly herbaceous plants; some species are Monokarp, ie perennial plants hapaxanthe. A shoot axis is only available underground. They form sympodial corms or rhizomes. They contain all aboveground plant parts milk juice. All plant parts are smooth. At least the leaf base is succulent, so fleshy. There is no secondary growth present ( often thick pseudostems therefore arise unlike trees ). The base of the leaves form the pseudostem.
The alternate and spirally arranged leaves are divided in Musa in a tubed leaf sheath, a short petiole and leaf blade, at Ensete lack a petiole. You are pinnately and the lateral nerves branch from the midrib more or less at right angles from; so that it is extremely different from the usual in monocots Parallelnervigkeit. The leaf margin is smooth. The simple leaf blade often ruptures along the lateral nerves and so the leaves often act like fiederteilig. The stomata are tetracytisch, so have four subsidiary cells.
Inflorescences and flowers
Most end, rare pendant, hanging or upright, branched total inflorescences are usually composed of several monachsialen zymösen partial inflorescences. The zymösen part inflorescences contain many flowers, it will develop the so-called banana hands, so the groups of fruits, as we find them well as the end user often. There are spirally arranged, often showy bracts ( bracts ) but no cover pages available.
The zygomorphic flowers are in threes and are rarely hermaphrodite or unisexual usually; the plants are monoecious. Of the 2 × 3 bracts are under five grown together and one is empty, which is the perianth more or less two-lipped. The five or six stamens are among themselves freely and are not fused with the bloom cladding. Sometimes a Staminodium is available. The two-celled pollen grains have no aperture. Three carpels are fused into one under constant, dreikammerigen ovary. Each of the three ovary chambers containing 10 to 100 ovules. It's a simple pen available. There are Septalnektarien present, in some species abundant nectar secreting (especially in the pollinated by birds species). Pollination is always by Animals: insects ( entomophily ), birds ( Ornithophilie, sunbirds ( Nectariniidae ) in Southeast Asia, hummingbirds ( Trochilidae ) in the Neotropics ), bats ( Chiropterophilie ) or tree shrews ( Scandentia ).
Fruits, seeds and propagation
The fruits are leathery, fleshy berries that are oblong or cylindrical to a banana shape and color when ripe usually yellow to red. If fertilization took place, they contain 20 to 100 seeds. The seeds have a diameter of 5 to 15 mm, contain starch and have a thick, hard shell ( testa). The sweet fruit pulp is produced from placental trichomes.
Some types, but especially the fruits are used as an important food from the hybrids. Most hybrids, so most forms of culture, are sterile, so they do not form seeds. Reproduction is usually vegetative.
Sets of chromosomes and ingredients
On sets of chromosomes are found: n = 9-11, 16, 17 on ingredients proanthocyanidins are always available: cyanidin and delphinidin. They contain Raphidien ( calcium oxalate crystals).
Dissemination
These plant species are tropical or subtropical and come originally from West Africa to India to the Pacific front. Its main distribution area is Southeast Asia. They thrive mostly in the tropical lowlands. In China, all three genera are found with 14 species.
System
The botanical name honors Antonius Musa, the personal physician of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Since the family of Musaceae in 1789 by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in Genera Plantarum, p 61 has been placed, it remained widely recognized. Only a few more genera were formerly classified add, which are now classified in the families of Heliconiaceae, Strelitziaceae and Lowiaceae. These four families are within the order of Zingiberales also related to each other closer than with the other families.
Long a scientific debate to a third genus Musella was performed. The first described by Adrien René Franchet 1889 as Musa lasiocarpa Musella lasiocarpa synonym of style today was placed alternately in one of the two existing genera, neither fits into the genus Musa Ensete yet. The previous sub-genus Musella within the genus Musa is its own genus, this could be confirmed by molecular genetic studies of John Kress.
In today three genera are a total of about 35 to 42 species.
- Musa L.: With about 30 species in four sections.
- Ensete Horan. With about six to ten species.
- Musella ( Franchet ) CYWu ex HWLi, with only one type: Musella lasiocarpa ( Franchet ) CYWu ex HWLi ( Syn: Musella splendida RVValmayor & LDDanh ): It grows wild in southern Guizhou, central and western Yunnan at altitudes 1500-2500 meters, Myanmar and Vietnam. It is also planted in gardens.
Swell
- The Musaceae in APWebsite family. ( Section systematics and description)
- The Musaceae at DELTA of L.Watson and MJDallwitz family. ( Description section )
- Alan T. Whittemore: Musaceae in the Flora of North America, Volume 22, 2000: Description. ( Description section )
- Delin Wu, W. John Kress: Musaceae in the Flora of China, Volume 24, 2000, p 314: Online. ( Description section )
- Michael G. Simpson: Musaceae, in Plant Systematics, Elsevier Inc., 2005, p 195 ISBN 0-12-644460-9
- David Constantine, Gerda Rossel: Musaceae: Online since 1999 and supplemented constantly.
- The Musaceae family at the National Museum of Natural History ( NMNH ) of the Smithsonian Institution.
- Jon L.R. Every, Amélia Baracat: Neotropical Neotropical Flowering Plants in Musaceae - neotropikey. ( Section systematics and description)