| Popis: |
DURING a recent visit to the Western Pacific, I was able to examine in Viti Levu, Fiji, the indigenous edible banana known as 'Soaqa'. Its vegetative and floral characters conform to the description of Musa Fehi Bertero ex Vieill1, with which M. Seemanni F. v. Muell. is probably conspecific. Specimens were also collected from Malaita, B.S.I.P. Conflicting accounts of the seminal fertility of this species appear in the literature2,3,4, and are typified by Baker's statement5 that it is “seedless at the low levels but bearing seeds at an altitude of 3000–6000 ft.”. In three inflorescences which I examined, successive hands (clusters of flowers subtended by a bract) were as follows: The rachis distal to the fruits was withered in each of the fairly mature bunches, but its remnant showed the scars of a few bracts. In the young bunch, only the first four hands of male flowers (a total of nine flowers) were morphologically fairly regular, the remainder being contorted. Pollen was very sparse ; many grains were empty and those with contents were variable in size. Thus the male phase, is transitory and the anthers are virtually sterile. |
