Ethiopian banana (Ensete ventricosum)
Description
Like bananas, Ensete ventricosum is a large non-woody plant - a gigantic monocarpic evergreen perennial herb (not a tree) - up to 6 m (20 ft) tall. It has a stout pseudostem of tightly overlapping leaf bases, and large banana-like leaf blades of up to 5 m (16 ft) tall by 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wide, with a salmon-pink midrib. The flowers, which only occur once from the centre of the plant at the end of that plant's life, are in massive pendant thyrses covered by large pink bracts. The fruits are inedible (insipid, flavorlessand have hard, black, rounded seeds. After flowering, the plant dies.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Zingiberales
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Family: Musaceae
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Genus: Ensete
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