ornamental plants in musa genus

2.  Family : Musaceae
 Origin : south east Asia
 valued for their beautiful foliage or
coloured inflorescence and small
inedible fruits full of seeds
 typically suited for humid tropical climate
prevailing in Kerala
 Need only less management
 Can be grown with minimum inputs

4. …
…

8. Musaceae
 Musa
 Eumusa(2n=22)
 Australimusa(2n=20)
 Callimusa (2n=20)
 Rhodochlamys(2n=22)
 Incertaesedis (2n=14,18)
 Musella (2n=2x=18)
 Ensete (2n=2x=18)

9. Section -Rhodochlamys
 Most of the species in this section are
best known for their brightly colour
bracts on erect inflorescence

10. Musa velutina

11. Musa velutina
 ‘Pink velvet banana’ found growing wild in the
sub-tropical evergreen forests of Arunachal
Pradesh and Assam in India
 The name “velutina” was derived from the
hairy, velvety nature of the beautiful pink
skinned fruits
 On maturity the fruit peel splits and separates
into irregular strips from apex to base,
revealing a central mass of white flesh, filled
with black seeds
 Fruit splits on maturity.

12. Musa aurantiaca

13. Musa aurantiaca
 One of the most elegant members
of Rhodochlamys with bright orange colour buds
 Found mostly in higher altitudes regions of
Arunachal Pradesh in India
 Plant grows in clumps of 10-12 with 0.8-1 m
height
 Under undisturbed conditions it flowers freely
without following the seasonal behavior
 Four to five buds at one place give a false
appearance of forest flame.

14. Musa laterita

15. Musa laterita
 This species is native to North-East
India, Myanmar and Northern Thailand
 Its cultivation is common as an
ornamental plant worldwide
 The name “laterita” derives from the
colour of its bracts, which resemble the
brick-red tropical soil known as “laterite”.

16. Musa ornata

17. Musa ornata
 True form of this species only found in India
 During 19th century it reached to central and
south America where it became naturalized
 This species itself is not an especially variable
plant in itself but it hybridizes freely with other
species
 As a result there are number of hybrids
derived from this species in the tropical
regions with lots of variability

18. Musa siamensis

19. Musa siamensis
 Discovered from eastern Thailand in 2002
 This species is called ‘Thai Gold’ by Thai
nursery people ,̒ChekMeas’ in Cambodia
 Herb to 2.7m tall
 Leaves mid green, leaf blades - 1.2m in
length
 Inflorescence with pale creamy yellow -
lemon yellow bracts, younger bracts pale
yellow or very light green in some
specimens
 Flowers yellow

20. Musa rosea

21. Musa rosea
 Originates in Cambodia
 The inflorescence is short and erect with
red bracts
 This species has been recently
reclassified and synonymised with Musa
ancgorensis (Hakkinen, 2006).

22. Musa mannii

23. Musa mannii
 Is native of Assam in India
 Also called as ‘Assam Dwarf Banana’ or
‘Indian Dwarf Banana’
 The slender pseudo stems are about 60-80
cm in height with profuse suckering habit
 The leaves are green, with a narrow purple
boarder
 Inflorescence is studded with large pale
purplish bracts and shorter yellow male
flowers

24. Musa rubra

25. Musa rubra
 This species is known as ‘Red dwarf
banana’
 This beautiful dwarf species is native to
China, India, Burma and Thailand
 It has wide leaves, reddish stems and
stunning red flowers
 It is closely related to Musa laterita and
easily grown in tropical and warm
temperate regions.

26. Section Callimusa
 Plant bears upright flower stalk with
variously coloured buds, flowers along
with the seeded fruit

27. Musa Coccinea

28. Musa Coccinea
 It is also called as scarlet banana or red
ornamental banana or red tourch banana
 Plant bears inflorescence with more
rounded and clustered bracts of bright
orange to scarlet colour
 Plants are dwarf less than 4 feet in height
with profuse suckers
 This species is highly suitable for container
gardening as well as for screening purpose
as backdrop planting in the gardens.

29. Musa beccarii

30. Musa beccarii
 Small banana from Borneo
 Plant begins to flower when it is 1 to 1.5
m height
 This species bears a narrow, erect,
elliptical, bright scarlet bud, with green-
tipped bracts

31. Musa campestris

32. Musa campestris
 This species is called as candy cane
banana
 Native of Borneo and Malayan regions
 This species bears large purple flowers
followed by white coloured fruits which
are striped with pink and purple strains
looks like a candy cane
 Slender Pseudo stem with 1.5-2 m
height with profuse suckering habit.

33. Musa violascens

34. Musa violascens
 A fairly short ornamental species with
mauve coloured bud bracts often
confused with the species Musa ornate
 Distributed in Malayan regions
 Having slender pseudostem with 1-2m
height

35. Genera Ensete (2n=18, x=9)
 Ensete glaucum
 Ensete superbum (Rock banana)
 Ensete perrieri
 Ensete homblei
 Ensete ventricosum
 E. ventricosum Maurrelli (Abyssinian
banana)

36. Ensete glaucum Ensete superbum

37. Ensete perrieri Ensete homblei

38. E. ventricosum Maurrelli
Ensete ventricosum

39. Genera-Musella (2n=18, x=9)

40. CULTIVATION
 Climate
 Humid subtropical to semi-arid subtropics up
to 2500 m above mean sea level
 temperature - 15-35°C
 rainfall - 500-2000 mm/year
 Require full sunshine

41. Temperature and wind
 Temperature Requirement :
○ 26 – 28 0C - shoot growth
○ 29 – 30 0C - fruit growth
○ Growth is slowed down at 16 0C and stops at 10 0C
○ If temperature falls below 10 0C – chilling injury
 Wind speed above 25 mph and 45 mph
may cause the tall and short cultivars to
topple

42. Soil
 All kinds of soils having good drainage- In
sandy soils, plants grow faster
 pH - 6.5-7.5 is optimum

43. Propagation
 Musa and Musella- suckers
 Ensete -main pseudostem of bananas is
monocarpic (it dies after flowering) -next
oldest sucker grows to replace it
 Suckers or corms , seeds ,cut rhizomes

44. Planting
 Pot and Pit methods
 Pits- 60 cm3 - filled with a mixture of soil,
sand and farmyard manure -1:1:1
 Sucker or seedling is planted in the center
of pit
 Ornamental purpose bananas - 0.6-3m
apart
 Dwarf statured plant species can be grown
in containers
 Repotting - once in three years

45. Use of growth regulators
 Paclobutrazol 0.25 mg/plant (Gaspar et
al, 1999) at end of hardening stage reduce
the plant height two months after
application
 Ancymidol (ANC) or Paclobutrazol (PBZ)
in liquid culture media during multiplication
stage of bananas decreases the excessive
growth of stems and leaves
 Soil application of Paclobutrazol reduces
the plant height by 25% without any
adverse effect on the flowering

46. Interculturing
 Irrigation -1-1.5” water/week
 Desuckering
 Weed control

47. Flowering and fruiting
 Flowering in banana occurs after a
vegetative phase of leaf growth
 Shoot apical meristem differentiates to an
inflorescence
 Basal flowers – female
 Distal flowers – male
 Bracts subtend the flowers

48.  By the time male flowers on
inflorescence are shedding pollen ,
female flowers no longer receptive
 For seedset , synchronization of
flowering required
 Rarely, basal flowers are functionally
hermaphrodite and can be self pollinated
to produce viable seeds- Musa velutina ,
Ensete spp

49. Diseases
 Fusarium wilt
 Sigatoka leaf spot
 Bacterial wilt
 Bunchy top
 Mosaic virus

50. Pests
 Banana weevil- Carbaryl -0.1%
 Burrowing nematode (radophilus
similes)- Carbofuran 3G
 Root-knot nematode (meloidogyne
spp)