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Musa troglodytarum
Fe'i banana is a cultivated Pacific banana with brilliant orange to red skin and orange flesh, grown as a tall herbaceous plant that needs a warm, wet tropical climate. It is usually cooked and eaten as a staple.
Fe'i bananas (also spelt Fehi or Féi) are cultivated plants in the genus Musa, used mainly for their fruit. They are very distinct in appearance and origin from the majority of bananas and plantains currently grown. Found mainly in the islands of the Pacific, particularly French Polynesia, Fe'i bananas have skins which are brilliant orange to red in colour with yellow or orange flesh inside. They are usually eaten cooked and have been an important food for Pacific Islanders, moving with them as they migrated across the ocean. Most are high in β-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A).
The botanical name for Fe'i bananas is Musa troglodytarum L. Its origin is uncertain and it may be a hybrid.
Fe'i bananas are mainly found from the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) in the west to French Polynesia in the east, particularly the Society Islands and the Marquesas Islands. They have been important both as a staple and as a ceremonial food, although their cultivation and use has sharply declined in recent decades. As the Pacific Islanders spread by canoe throughout the Pacific, they took Fe'i bananas with them; cultivation has been traced back to around 250 BC in the Marquesas and to around 800 AD in Tahiti in the Society Islands. They are believed to have originated in the New Guinea area, where cultivars with seeds occur, as do the wild species from which they are thought to be descended.
Edible banana · Musa ×alinsanaya · Bulada Banana · Banana · Japanese Banana · Pisang Tajak · Scarlet Banana · Giant Highland Banana · Flowering Banana · Laterite Banana · Javanese Wild Banana · Abacá
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Fe'i banana 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.
