Re: Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii'

Tim wrote:

>Does anyone know the origin of the name of this cultivar? Derived from a Mr Maurell, presumably, but who he?
>Grateful if anyone can help.

Tim, this is a quote from David Constantine's site which answers your
question.  David is probably one of the UK's leading experts on the
Musaceae and a bit of a stickler for being accurate, so his info is
likely to be spot on.

"This superb plant for the summer garden was "discovered" by Monsieur
J. Maurel, Director of the Alliance Francaise School of Addis Ababa,
 Ethiopia.  A gentleman named Bois working at the Natural History
Museum in Paris described it formally in 1930 and named it Musa sp.?
var. Maurelii in honour of J. Maurel.  Bois might have named the plant
Musa ensete var. Maurelii but thought it was so different that it must
be some other but closely related species.  

As the result of taxonomic revisions in 1947 and 1953 it could be seen
that this plant belonged to Ensete ventricosum albeit an unusual,
richly coloured form of that species.  The fact that it is so unusual,
coupled with the fact that the name Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' has
never formally been published, leads some people, wrongly, to call it
Ensete maurelii.   Plants sold as Ensete ventricosum 'Rubrum' or
'Atropurpureum' are also 'Maurelii'."

Hope that helps

David Poole
TORQUAY  UK
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