Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, 1947 [1948]

Verloove, Filip, 2021, New records in vascular plants alien to Tenerife (Spain, Canary Islands), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 62878-62878 : 62878

Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman, 1947 [1948]

Ensete ventricosum Kew Bulletin 1947(2): 101. 1947 [1948]

Distribution

TENERIFE: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Casas de la Cumbre, 10.01.2017, F. Verloove s.c.https://observation.org/observation/205254987/

Notes

This species, known as Ethiopian banana, is cultivated as staple food in parts of East Africa. In addition, it is grown as an ornamental, also in the Canary Islands. In the Anaga Mountains in Tenerife, it is locally planted in roadsides near urbanisations. In 2017, a single individual was observed in an impenetrable thicket, composed of native low shrubs (Fig. 4 ). It is unknown whether this plant refers to a former plantation or germinated from seed.

In New Zealand, Ensete ventricosum is known to have naturalised in comparable climatological circumstances ( Gardner and de Lange 1996).

Figures

Figure 4. Ensete ventricosum, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Las Casas de la Cumbre), January 2017.