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Ensete ventricosum
Also called Banana Palm, Enset, Ethiopian Banana, False Banana, Banana Tree, Ensete
Abyssinian banana is a large monocarpic perennial in the banana family, grown for its tall banana-like leaves and starchy roots rather than its inedible fruit. It thrives in warm, humid conditions with rich, moist soil, and the whole plant dies after flowering once.
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.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ensete ventricosum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
