2005 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 213-230
Borneo, being part of the centre of banana origin, is home to a large number of wild bananas. Musa borneensis was one of the first Musa species from the island that was described by the Italian botanist Dr. Odoardo Beccari in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the Japanese Prof. Mitsuru Hotta described a closely related variety of M. borneensis, and named it M.flavida. However, each botanist studied different areas of the island and could not observe the close relation to the other varieties. The M. borneensis group from Borneo has been studied extensively in the field during 2001-2004 in Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah) and Brunei by the authors. Keys and a table of differentiating characteristics of each variety are provided. Six distinct M. borneensis varieties have been identified: alutacea, borneensis, flavida, lutea, phoenicea, and sarawakensis. Four of these varieties are described and illustrated as new varieties. We propose re-classifying M. flavida as a variety rather than as a species, as its degree of differentiation is well within the variations of the other varieties described.
