Musaceae
Ensete

Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman

First published in Kew Bull. 2: 101 (1947 publ. 1948)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Ethiopia to Northern Prov. It is a herbaceous tree and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome. It is used as animal food, a medicine and invertebrate food, has environmental uses and for food.

Distribution

Native to:

Angola, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Introduced into:

Gulf of Guinea Is., Jawa, Juan Fernández Is.

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Albano, P.-O. (2003). La Conaissance des Plantes Exotiques: 1-324. Édisud, Aix-en-Provence.
  • Darbyshire, I., Kordofani, M., Farag, I., Candiga, R. & Pickering, H. (eds.) (2015). The Plants of Sudan and South Sudan: 1-400. Kew publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Figueiredo, E., Paiva, J., Stévart, T., Oliveira, F. & Smith, G.F. (2011). Annotated catalogue of the flowering plants of São Tomé and Príncipe. Bothalia 41: 41-82.
  • Fischer, E., Rembold, K., Althof, A. & Obholzer, J. (2010). Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Kakamega forest, Western province, Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History 99: 129-226.
  • Govaerts, R. (2001). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS E-F: 1-50919.
  • Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
  • Timberlake, J.R. & Martins, E.S. (eds.) (2010). Flora Zambesiaca 13(4): 1-151. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Species Profiles

  • Ademasu Tsegaye & Westphal, E. (2002). Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman. In Oyen, L.P.A. & Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (eds), Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Precursor. (Associate Editors: Davis, S.D., Chauvet, M. & Siemonsma, J.S.). PROTA Programme, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Pp. 75-79.
  • Baker, R.E.D. & Simmonds, N.W. (1953). The genus Ensete in Africa. Kew Bulletin 8: 405-416.
  • Negash, A. (2001). Diversity and conservation of enset ( Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) and its relation to household food and livelihood security in south-western Ethiopia. PhD thesis Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Figueiredo, E., Paiva, J., Stévart, T., Oliveira, F. & Smith, G.F. (2011). Annotated catalogue of the flowering plants of São Tomé and Príncipe. Bothalia 41: 41-82.
  • Fischer, E., Rembold, K., Althof, A. & Obholzer, J. (2010). Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Kakamega forest, Western province, Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History 99: 129-226.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Dempewolf, H., Eastwood, R. J., Guarino, L., Khoury, C. K., Müller, J. V. & Toll, J. (2014). Adapting agriculture to climate change: a global initiative to collect, conserve, and use crop wild relatives. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 38, 369-377.
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • IUCN (2021). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2. https://www.iucnredlist.org.
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
  • RBG, Kew (ed.) (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
  • Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Flora of Tropical East Africa

  • Cheesman in KB. 2: 101 (1948).
  • Dale & Greenway, Kenya Trees and Shrubs p. 10 (1961).

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Osborne, J. [JO1533] Mozambique K001324673 Yes
Osborne, J. [JO1533] Mozambique K001346237 Yes
Wordsell, W.C. [s.n.] South Africa K000308007 Type Yes
Kirk, J [1777] Tanzania K000099716 Type Yes
Buchanan, J. [470] K000099717 Type Yes
Engler, A. [2254] Tanzania K000099681 Type Yes
Mingard, H. [19] South Africa K000308008 Unknown Type Material Yes
Baker, R.E.D. [116] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-22646.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [120] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-17139.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [114] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-22649.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [183] Tanzania Ensete edule K:SPC-22650.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [16] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-22647.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [117] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-22651.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [212] Tanzania Ensete edule K:SPC-20333.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [213] Tanzania Ensete edule K:SPC-17133.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [27] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-22648.000 No
Meyer, F.G. [8093] Ethiopia Ensete edule K002917891 Yes
Drummond, R.B.; Hemsley, J.H. [1341] Tanzania Ensete edule K:SPC-18914.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [28] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-22214.000 No
Meyer, F.G. [8093a] Ethiopia Ensete edule K002917890 Yes
Baker, R.E.D. [233] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-20332.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [113] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-22652.000 No
Meyer, F.G. [8093] Ethiopia Ensete edule K002917889 Yes
Baker, R.E.D. [119] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-17137.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [115] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-17138.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [26] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-22653.000 No
Dawe, M.T. [521] Uganda Ensete edule K000099680 Holotype Yes
Dawe, M.T. [521] Uganda Ensete edule K000099679 Type Yes
[121] Uganda Ensete edule K:SPC-22091.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [21] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-17135.000 No
Baker, R.E.D. [48] Kenya Ensete edule K:SPC-17136.000 No

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible

    • ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Kew Species Profiles

    • Kew Species Profiles
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Seed Collection Guides

    • Seed Collection Guides
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0