7 Comments. This contributes to the high number of varieties. Specimen in Jardin botanique exotique de Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France, Species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae, Socio-cultural importance of enset in Ethiopia, Enset biodiversity and socio-cultural and -economic groups, Kippie Kanshie, T. "Five thousand years", p. 19. Heuzé V., Thiollet H., Tran G., Hassoun P., Lebas F., 2016. Family: MUSACEAE. Men are banned from the field during this process. [37][24][39], Enset-planting complex is one of the four farming systems of Ethiopia together with pastoralism, shifting cultivation and the seed-farming complex. Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' - Red Abysinnian Banana. [22] The dispersion of the mealybug occurs through different vectors: First, the larvae can crawl short distances[22] as adults mealybugs tend to move only after being disturbed. Plants need consistently moist soils that do not dry out. [24][29] The only way to avoid the spreading of the disease is in uprooting, burning and burying plants as well as in applying strict control of the knives and tools used to harvest and treat the plants. [9] Its importance to the diet and economy of the Gurage and Sidama peoples was first recorded by Jerónimo Lobo in the seventeenth century. Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ Maurelii has large exotic looking paddle shape leaves that will bring an instant tropical feel to your garden. Winter Hardiness: 20-25° F Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' (Red Banana) - Ensete is native to Ethiopia and has long been a popular choice for creating tropical effects in ornamental plantings. Feedipedia, a programme by INRA, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO. 12. pp. Women are more likely to precisely recognize the different varieties of the plant than men. Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as enset or ensete, Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana,[2] pseudo-banana and false banana, is an herbaceous species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. Ensete ventricosum comes from the Ethiopian highlands, the country which was once known as Abyssinia, conditions considerably more mild than the zn 8a or 8b I experience here in inner SE Portland, so here’s what I do: Fall weather here can be very volatile. Susceptible to anthracnose, wilt and mosiac virus. Up to 400 suckers can be produced from just one mother plant. Container plants cut close to the ground in fall each year may never flower. Third, flooding events can transport the mealybug over longer distances and reach enset plants. Enset is often intercropped with sorghum, although the practice amongst the Gedeo people is to intercrop it with coffee.[11]. In St. Louis, plants may be grown outdoors during the growing season (either directly in the ground or in containers), but must be brought indoors for overwintering or they will not survive. About. False Banana. Even though not all the plant losses can be attributed to drought and land shortage and hence early consumption of immature crops, estimations go as far as more than 60% of the false banana crop stands have been lost in some areas in SNNPR during the last 10 years. The symptoms are basically dark/brown lesions surrounded by yellow on the leaves. What you get. [38] Over centuries, the different ethnic groups have applied their specific indigenous knowledge of farming systems in order to sustain production in various ways. [5] It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit,[14][15] as has the cultivar 'Maurelii' (Ethiopian black banana)[16], A good quality fibre, suitable for ropes, twine, baskets, and general weaving, is obtained from the leaves. [27], Different studies state the importance of women's knowledge on the different crop varieties. en-SET-ay ven-trih-KOE-sum Audio This banana-like perennial has large paddle-shaped leaves, which range in color from deep claret brown to red-purple to pale green, produced from the center of the plant, with thick midribs bright red beneath. [13], The plant is quick-growing and often cultivated as an ornamental plant. Ensete ventricosum - Abyssinian banana Musa velutina - Pink banana Musa sikkimensis - Himalayan banana Musa zebrina - Blood Banana Ensete Glaucum - Snow Banana ; Ensete glaucum! Banana-like fruits (to 3” long) are dry and inedible. Once settled in and happy, these plants truly are, to use a much trivialised word - awesome. Though the roots are an important foodstuff, the fruits are inedible (insipid, flavorless)[6] and have hard, black, rounded seeds. White flowers (generally non-showy) in inflorescences appear somewhat hidden in summer on mature plants. Ensete ventricosum maurelii. Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii' Abyssinian Banana. The seed does need a high germination temperature, and fresh seed seems to produce better germination rates, but it is not easy to know if seed is fresh. 3 or 4 litre well rooted pot – Available to callers/collection only. Ensete ventricosum is extremely fast growing, and will quickly grow into a space, as the focal point of the display. Dig and store dry in the shed over winter or squeeze into a small pot in the greenhouse. Propagate by seed or tissue culture.‘Maurelii’ is reportedly more difficult to transplant than species’ plants, and therefore it is not recommended for growing directly in the ground with dig up in fall. With a common name of Abyssinian banana you just know you need to have this in any garden for a truly tropical feel. It is a classic tropical foliage plant that becomes a striking specimen in the landscape. Watch out for red spider mite it loves this plant! Plants tolerate and often appreciate some part shade or light filtered sun in the heat of the day. Genus Ensete are robust evergreen perennials forming a short stem, with large paddle-shaped leaves and pendent terminal clusters of cup-shaped flowers, followed by dry banana-like fruits Details 'Maurelii' is a tender, evergreen perennial with huge, upright leaves 3m or more in length. [40], Another important aspect in which gender plays a role is in the classification of enset varieties. Cultivar: Maurelii. Options for overwintering include: (1) Bring container plant indoors in fall before first frost and place container in a large sunny room for overwintering as a houseplant, with reduced water and fertilization; (2) If container plant is too large to bring inside as a houseplant, cut foliage back to 6-8” in fall after first frost, and store container in a cool, dark, frost-free corner of the basement until spring, with periodic addition of a touch of moisture as needed in winter to prevent the soils from totally drying out; (3) If container plant is too heavy or too large to bring inside, remove plant from container in fall before first frost, wrap roots in plastic and store in a cool, dark, frost-free corner of the basement until spring (foliage may be trimmed back or left on the plant and allowed to brown up in the normal course); (4) If growing plants directly in the ground, dig, wrap roots, trim back the leaves and store as in option #3 above. and is commonly called black Sigatoka leaf streaks. An immediate eye catcher it grows remarkably fast; in summer it can acquire a leaf a week. "The Plant List: A Working List of all Plant Species", "Enset in Ethiopia: a poorly characterized but resilient starch staple", "Five thousand years of sustainability? Read customer reviews. The Latin specific epithet ventricosum means “with a swelling on the side, like a belly”. HI All I live in Cornwall, UK, and have a beautiful Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' in a pot. Water regularly and feed with a … Keep container soils consistently moist but not wet. The farmers’ main interest for maintaining biodiversity is the different beneficial characteristics of each varietiy. The latter erode the corm and pseudostem. The nematode infestation leads to the easy uprooting of the affected plants. Out of stock. This disease is caused by Mycospharella spp. It is widely used by around 20 million people which represent 20-25% of the population. [37][38][24] It has major economic, social, cultural and environmental functions related to trade, medicine, cultural identity, rituals or settlement patterns. Due to the red leaves the plant is also known as Red Banana. The wine-red coloring of the top of the large, 10 to 12 foot long leaves and leaf stems combined with the 12 to 15 foot tall pseudo-trunk make this large tropical unique. [34][35][36], Enset cultivation in Ethiopia is reported to be 10,000 years old, though there is little emprical evidence to support this. Botanically known as Ensete Ventricosum [en-SET-ee, ven-tre-KO-sum], Ensete Maurelii [en-SET-ee, mor-REE-lee] is an herbaceous perennial and belongs to the flowering plant family Musaceae (banana plant). White flowers are borne in inflorescences 3 to 4 feet long. Plant Care: Cultural Information. In Ethiopia, more than 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres; 580 sq mi) are cultivated for the starchy staple food prepared from the pulverised trunk and inflorescence stalk. Only larger sizes available at the nursery. This product has no reviews yet. The fresh corm is cooked like potatoes before eating. Obviously, dwarf varieties make the best indoor plants, because who has room for a 16 foot (5 m) banana “tree” in their living room? The common name is the Red Abyssinian Banana, but in the nurseries, they’ll most likely have the Latin name which is Ensete vetricosum maurelii. Corm Division . As distinguished from Musa, this plant has a stronger leaf midrib … Available in traditional green (Ensete Ventricosum) or with a rather fetching reddish tinge (Ensete Ventricosum 'Maurelii'). Tropicals forum: Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' – Best Winter Care? [22] Pratylenchus goodeyi create lesions on the corm and roots, which can lead to cavities up to 2 cm (0.79 in) and characteristic purple colouring around the cavities. [23] Second, mealybugs-ant symbiotic relationships can be linked to enset infestation and protect and even transport the mealybug over short distances. Watch for aphids, spider mites, mealybugs and scale. Cheesman) (musaceae family) diversity on-farm", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ensete_ventricosum&oldid=988969204, Articles lacking reliable references from September 2015, Short description is different from Wikidata, Taxonbars with automatically added basionyms, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 November 2020, at 08:47. In 1994 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi) of enset were grown in Ethiopia, with a harvest estimated to be almost 10 tonnes per hectare (4.0 long ton/acre; 4.5 short ton/acre). Bruce also discussed the plant's place in the mythology of Egypt and pointed out that some Egyptian statue 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.[20][21]. The red Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) is a magnificent plant with huge red-tinged leaves, ideal as the centrepiece in a tropical-themed border. Species: ventricosum. Hence farmers were overexploiting their Enset reserves thereby causing gradual losses and disappearance of the false banana as an important household food security reserve. [24][38] Additionally, women process enset plants, which is a tedious work (transformation of the plant into useful material, principally food and fibres) for which they generally gather together. Larger picture . [12] However its value as a famine food has fallen for a number of reasons, as detailed in the April 2003 issue of the UN-OCHA Ethiopia unit's Focus on Ethiopia: Apart from an enset plant disease epidemic in 1984–85 which wiped out large parts of the plantations and created the green famine, in the past 10 years major factors were recurrent drought and food shortage together with acute land shortage that forced farmers more and more into consumption of immature plants. The Food and Agriculture Organization reports that "enset provides more amount of foodstuff per unit area than most cereals. It will bloom all the way into November if you wish to keep it going. Enset (E. ventricosum) is Ethiopia's most important root crop, a traditional staple in the densely populated south and southwestern parts of Ethiopia. Last year I took on a propagation project with my Ensete Banana plant. In Ethiopia, over 300 enset varieties have been recorded[41] which is important for agro- and biodiversity. 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