Ensete berryi: Revised Name for Musa enseteformis Berry

Abstract

WORKING on some petrified plants from the Deccan Intertrappean Series of India, I have found certain well-preserved specimens of fossil bananas to be described in detail elsewhere. Looking into the geological history of the genus Musa, I find that Musa enseteformis Berry¹ is the only definite palæobotanical record of the old genus Musa L. This species was based on some carbonized seeds recovered from the coal beds of Cerros de Guadalupe and Montserrate in the eastern border of the Sabana of Bogota, Colombia. The exact horizon from which these seeds were obtained was not known ; but Berry considered them to be of Oligocene age.