The wild and ornamental Musaceae of Vietnam with descriptions of two new traveling bananas

Two new species of Musa found in Vietnam are described for the first time: Musa tonkinensis R. Valmayor, L.D. Danh and M. Hakkinen, sp. nov. and Musa itinerans Cheesman ssp. annamica R. Valmayor, L.D. Danh and M. Hakkinen, sp. nov. The two species can easily be differentiated from the other members of the genus Musa by their long and extended rhizomes that produce suckers far from the mother plant, hence, the term traveling bananas. But M. tonkinensis can be segregated from other rhizomatous species of Musa by its unique male bud. The apex of the male bud is markedly imbricated and the tips of individual bracts are neatly arranged in a beautiful spiral so different from other species of Musa. While the external color of mature bracts are purple with green margins, the young, unexposed bracts are solid yellow. The exposed tips of the imbricated bracts dry up early and turn brown. These unique features serve as diagnostic characters of M. tonkinensis. The morphology of Musa itinerans ssp. Annamica is very similar to that of the common M. itinerans but can easily be distinguished by its unique method of bract opening. The bracts twist and curl sideways as they roll open, instead of curling and rolling upward as is commonly observed in the other species of Musa. Other distinguishing characteristics are based on their fruits. The fruits of the subspecies annamica are elongated and slightly narrowing toward bath ends while those of itinerans are short and obovoid, widest near the apex and narrowing gradually toward the pedicel. Ripe fruits or the former species turn brown with cracked peeling while those of the latter turn yellow with their pericarp species carp remaining smooth. The Latin terms for the species tonkinensis and the subspecies annamica were selected to indicate the regions where the original specimens were collected. Tonkin was an ancient empire that extended from northern Vietnam to southeastern China while Annam was an old kingdom in Central Vietnam. (Author's abstract).