Christian

The unknown PNG species is without any doubt Musa maclayi ssp. maclayi var. maclayi.

I received them together with the Musa ingens seed from PNG, but hesitated to distribute them trough my Bananaswap site because at the time they were 'unknown'. Germination was by far easier then Musa ingens seeds, and I ended up with a few plants. Once the biggest one reached a good size for identification, I managed to get to the bottom of this mystery with the aid of the most recent publication on the wild banana species in PNG - Argent in the Notes of the Royal Botanical Garden Edinborough magazine (somewhen in the 70th). All known PNG species are described in great details.

Identification turned out very easy, as the very distinct features allowed to swiftly follow through all identification approaches published in the article.

Identification approaches were:
- Quick identification guide based on vegetative features
- shape of petiole cross-section
- shape and orientation of the leaf base
- Full textual description of vegetative features
Identification based on seed description prooved inconclusive, as to be quite frank the publication was not written to allow identification by seed alone, so this went bejond the scope of the publication.

Thanks to Argent, vegetative features are sufficient for most identification tasks, and seeing the flower is not a requirement for identification. He followed through both approaches, and I am grateful for this. Thank you Argent!!

The above steps proved that the plant is Musa maclayi. There are several subspecies and varieties. Based on the identification guides and full textual descriptions provided, the sub-species could be identified as Musa maclayi ssp. maclayi. The variety could not be identified without doubt based on vegetative features alone, for this floral characteristics would have to be considered. Nevertheless the habitats of the varieties are so distinct, that the variety can be identified based on location of collection. Location of collection is the PNG mainland. The other species are only to be found on very remote islands.

While talking about plant identification, a quick note on Musa ingens identification: There are two features that make this plant very unique in the context of all the other wild PNG species:
a) the seed size
b) the strongly revolute shoulders.

No other banana seeds from PNG are within the same size bracket - all other Musa seeds are smaller, only the only PNG endemic Ensete species is bigger.

I have never seen a banana plant with such strongly revolute shoulder! (Ok, Ok, I admit I don't know them all... :-) For those who don't know the term 'shoulder', it is the part of the petiole that surrounds the pseudostem at the point where the leaves emerge. In the case of Musa ingens it is rolling back outwards onto itself.

I hope this has cleared up some confusion.

Christian