Talk:Musella lasiocarpa

Chinese dwarf cooking-bananas
Ensete lasiocarpum (as Musa lasiocarpa) was described in 1889; the Bananas: An American History reference is about 1841. So was this the same species, or just some (possibly unknown) species with a similar common/commercial name? (unsigned comment by User:Hamamelis, 11:34, 9 March 2013‎)


 * Firstly Ensete lasiocarpum (syn. Musella lasiocarpa) does not produce edible bananas; only a couple of Musa species and a hybrid do so. Ensete buds and roots are eaten, not the fruits, which are full of seeds. So this species could not be called a "cooking-banana".
 * Secondly, there is a cultivar 'Dwarf Williams' which is also known as 'Dwarf Chinese'; it's one of the Cavendish banana cultivars. However, 1841 seems to be rather early for its introduction to Florida.
 * I'll do some more research on this, but I would be pretty confident that the challenged statement is false. Peter coxhead (talk) 22:18, 10 March 2013 (UTC)