Markku Hakkinen

The real Musa basjoo is Iinuma’s type specimen for which all the others must be compared. It is quite small (about 2.5m stem height) species.
What is coming to the Natureproducts’ plant it is not M.basjoo. It is an unidentified species collected from Hunan Province China. I know it well as I have lived several weeks at TianZi, Jinghong in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and I have been their technical advisor when Musaceae plants was concerned.

The Bramhaputra valley is located in Assam India.

Dr. George King: Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden studied in 19th century quite well the Tibet and Himalaya’s areas for Musaceae and he left a number of good collection of botanical illustrations and descriptions of the species which are stored at Kew. However, none of them is representing M. balbisiana.

Markku.

Alexander

Markku,

I had a look in my atlas, the Bramahaputra starts high up on the plateau of Tibet, streams east just south of Lhasa and then turns southward streaming down into India where it turns west again into the lowlands of Assam.

I thought that Musa balbisiana was also cultivated in the warmest arts of Tibet. You see hem everywhere in Assam, lower Sikkim, Nepal and also farther west. And also in Thailand. But cultivated plants, not wild ones. And there are several variaties arround.

Do they have Musa sikkimensis in Tibet, as a cultivated plant. In Sikkim I have seen plenty of them but always near human settlements, so I guess it has been introduced there by man. I heard they eat the inner parts as a vegetable.

Alexander

Markku Hakkinen

Hi,
The Bramhaputra valley is located in Assam. The river starts from Tibet. The valley is in low elevation and has warm climate for many kinds of Musa species. Normally one can see M.balbisiana only upto 800 meters elevation.
Markku.