Editing Musaceae (section)

===Genera===

As currently circumscribed the family includes three [[genus|genera]]. All genera and species are native to the [[Old World]] tropics. The largest and most economically important genus in the family is ''Musa'', famous for the [[banana]] and [[Plantain (true)|plantain]]. The genus [[Musa (genus)|''Musa'']] was formally established in the first edition of [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]]' ''[[Species Plantarum]]'' in 1753 — the publication that marks the start of the present formal [[botanical nomenclature]]. At the time he wrote ''Species Plantarum'', Linnaeus had first hand knowledge of only one type of banana, which he personally had the opportunity of seeing growing under glass in the garden of Mr. George Clifford near [[Haarlem]] in the Netherlands.

Before 1753, the genus had already been described by the pre-Linnaean [[botanist]] [[Georg Eberhard Rumphius]] and Linnaeus himself had described the banana he had seen as ''Musa cliffortiana'' in 1736 (this might be described as a "pre-Linnaean" Linnaean name). The 1753 name ''Musa paradisiaca'' L. for [[Plantain (true)|plantain]]s and ''Musa sapientum'' L. for dessert [[banana]]s are now known to refer to hybrids, rather than natural species. It is known today that most cultivated [[parthenocarpic|seedless]] bananas are [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrids]] or [[polyploid]]s of two wild banana species - ''[[Musa acuminata]]'' and ''[[Musa balbisiana]]''. Linnaeus' ''Musa sapientum'' is now identified to be the hybrid [[Latundan Banana|Latundan]] cultivar (''M.''&nbsp;×&nbsp;''paradisiaca'' AAB Group 'Silk'), while his ''Musa paradisiaca'' are now known to be hybrids belonging generally to the [[List of banana cultivars#AAB Group|AAB]] and [[List of banana cultivars#ABB Group|ABB]] banana [[cultivar group]]s.<ref name="a5">{{cite web|url= http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~drc/msapientum.htmu/Sorting/Musa.html|title= Musa sapientum|publisher= users.globalnet.co.uk|access-date= 11 January 2011}}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name ="b">{{Cite web| url = http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~drc/mparadisiaca.htm| title =Musa paradisiaca| publisher = users.globalnet.co.uk}}</ref> Hybridization and polyploidy was the cause of much confusion in the taxonomy of the genus ''Musa'' that was not resolved until the 1940s and 1950s.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Musa.html|title= Sorting Musa names|author= Michel H. Porcher| author2 = Prof. Snow Barlow| date= 2002-07-19|publisher= The University of Melbourne|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref>

In this clearing up of the taxonomy, [[Ernest Entwistle Cheesman]] in 1947 revived the genus name ''[[Ensete]]'' which had been published in 1862, by Horaninow, but had not been accepted.

''Musa'' section ''Musella'' Franch. was raised to the rank of genus by H.W. Li in 1978 for the Chinese species ''Musella lasiocarpa'', which was originally described in ''Musa'' in 1889 and transferred to ''Ensete'' by Cheesman in 1948. The species combines characters like the swollen stems of ''Ensete'' with the clonal habit of ''Musa''. Acceptance of ''Musella'' has varied; {{as of|2013|February|lc=yes}}, the [[World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]] considers it a synonym of ''Ensete'',<ref name="WCSP_255045">{{Citation |contribution=Musella|title=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families |publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=255045 |access-date=2013-02-07}}</ref> other sources dispute this view.<ref name="Christenhusz-Byng2016"/>