Finding English names for Edible Banana cultivars

In Singapore, most of us know the edible bananas by their Malay or Chinese names, which are somewhat localised. Without their proper cultivar names in English, it becomes quite difficult for us to go find out more about them, especially information about their growth characteristics and the cultivar’s growing conditions.

I did a search on the Internet and found a very useful and informative web book that was published in 2000 by Bioversity International’s Banana and Plantain section, entitled ”Banana cultivar names and synonyms in Southeast Asia”. It is a publication that I have been looking high and low for a long time!

URL – http://bananas.bioversityinternational.org/files/files/pdf/publications/synonyms.pdf

This 24-page booklet that is available online for free contains the background on the nomenclature and classification of Southeast Asian bananas as well as, a listing of variety names and synonyms that have been agreed at the meeting that was held in Philippines in 1999 where the curators of national banana germplasm collections resolved the names of nearly 300 banana varieties and agreed on a classification system, following that of Cheeseman and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.

From this publication, I now know the equivalent English names of two of the three edible banana cultivars,namely, Pisang Tanduk and Pisang Udang, that are grown in my community garden. Pisang Tanduk was written to be a triploid (AAB) banana cultivar, classified as a cooking banana, or a plantain. It’s internationally accepted cultivar name are Musa x paradisiaca ‘Horn’, ‘Cuerno’ and ‘Macho’. The red skinned banana that I have in the garden, which we call ‘Pisang Udang’, is found to be a type of triploid AAA, non-Cavendish, dessert banana. Its scientific name was given as Musa acuminata ‘Red’, ‘Rojo’ and ’Morado’.

I managed to find the two cultivar names because I knew their Malay names. The reason why I cannot find the other banana cultivar’s name was due to the fact that I only know its Chinese name; people here call it the “Forty Days Banana”. This particular banana variety is a highly yielding one which bears numerous hands of sweet and delicious dessert bananas. Each banana fruit measures about 10 to 15 cm long and the reason behind its Chinese name is that the fruits are said to be ready for harvest after about 40 days the flowers appeared.

Tags: Banana cultivar names and synonyms in Southeast Asia