Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as enset or ensete, Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, pseudo-banana, false banana, and wild banana, is a species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. The only country where the domesticated form of the plant is cultivated is Ethiopia, where it provides the staple food for approximately 20 million people. The name Ensete ventricosum was first published in 1947 in the Kew Bulletin.. Its synonyms include Musa arnoldiana, Musa ventricosa, and Musa ensete. In its wild form, it is native to the eastern edge of the Great African Plateau, extending northwards from South Africa through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania to Ethiopia, and west to the Congo, being found in high-rainfall forests on mountains, and along forested ravines and streams.
Discovery
In 1769, the Scottish traveller James Bruce first sent a description of a plant common in the marshes around Gondar in Abyssinia (a historical region which includes Ethiopia), pronouncing it to be "no species of Musa" and wrote that its local name was ensete. In 1853, the British Consul at Mussowah sent some seeds to Kew Gardens, mentioning that their native name was ansett. Kew did not make the connection to bananas until they germinated and grew in size.
Bruce also discussed the plant's place in the mythology of Egypt and pointed out that some Egyptian carvings depict the goddess Isis sitting among the leaves of what was thought to be a banana plant, a plant native to Southeast Asia and not known in Ancient Egypt.
Description
Like the banana, Ensete ventricosum is a large non-woody plant—a large monocarpic evergreen perennial—up to 6 m (20 ft) tall. The tallest to be reported was 13 m (43 ft). It has a stout pseudostem of tightly overlapping leaf bases, and large banana-like leaf blades of up to 5 m (16 ft) tall by 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wide; leaves up to 6 m (20 ft) long and up to 1.5 m...
