野蕉 ye jiao

Musa dechangensis J. L. Liu & M. G. Liu; M. lushanensis J. L. Liu; M. luteola J. L. Liu; M. ( paradisiaca Linnaeus subsp. seminifera (Loureiro) Baker; M. seminifera Loureiro.

Pseudostems clumped, yellow-green, often with large, black markings, ca. 6 m. Petiole 60--75 cm, margin open, ca. 2 cm wide, often closed when young; leaf blade adaxially green and slightly pruinose or not, ovate-oblong, ca. 2.9 m × 90 cm, base auriculate, asymmetric. Inflorescence pendulous, ca. 2.5 m; peduncle and rachis glabrous. Bracts of bisexual and male flowers adaxially purple-red, abaxially brownish purple to yellow-green and pruinose, ovate to lanceolate, persistent, apex obtuse, reflexed after flowering; bracts of female flowers deciduous. Male flowers up to 20 per bract, in 2 rows. Compound tepal adaxially pale purple, abaxially pale purple-white, 4--5 cm, striate, teeth yellow to orange; free tepal milky white, translucent, obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as compound tepal, apex emarginate, shortly mucronate-apiculate. Infructescence pendulous, with ca. 8 clusters (“hands”) each of 15 or 16 berries in 2 rows. Berries gray-green, obovoid, ca. 13 × 4 cm, distinctly angled at maturity, base narrowed into a stalk ca. 2.5 cm, apex contracted or not into a short, angled column ca. 2 cm. Seeds numerous, brown, oblate, 5--10 mm in diam., minutely warty. 2 n = 22.

Ravines in evergreen forests; ca. 1100 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Xizang, W Yunnan [India, Indonesia (Java), Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand].

The species is used to feed pigs.