Nomenclature system for cultivated bananas

The nomenclature system used to classify banana cultivars

was developed by Norman Simmonds and Kenneth
[1]
Shepherd in 1955 . It classies cultivated bananas into
genome groups, according to the relative contribution of
their ancestral wild species, and into subgroups, sets of
closely related cultivars. This system eliminates almost all
the diculties and inconsistencies of a taxonomy based on
Musa paradisiaca and Musa sapientum. However, due to
diculties in assigning certain cultivars to a subgroup, and
to a lesser extent to a group, there are inconsistencies in
the way the system has been applied. Adding to the
confusion is the continued use of Latin binomials to classify
cultivated bananas. Cultivated bananas are unusual in not
having a Latin scientic name.

Contents

Simmonds and Shepherd's genome-based system

Scoring system
Latin binomials nomenclature system
References
See also on this website
Further reading

Simmonds and Shepherd's genome-based system

In this system, bananas, at least the ones that are related to Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana,
are classied according to the relative contribution of these species designated by the letter A, for
acuminata, and B, for balbisiana. A cultivar is assigned to a genome group according to the number
of chromosome sets in its genome (its ploidy) and the species that donated them (see
Domestication of the banana). Diploid cultivars can belong to the AA or AB genome group, while
triploid cultivars fall into three genome groups: AAA, AAB and ABB (see the cultivar diversity portal).

Some taxonomists recognize a BBB genome group, but its existence has not been conclusively
demonstrated. Tetraploid cultivars are mostly hybrids produced by breeders.

Genome groups are further divided into subgroups usually dened as a set of cultivars derived from
each other through somatic mutations. On the basis of this system, cultivar names are put between
inverted commas and preceded by the name of the genus and when known, the name of the group
and subgroup. For example: Musa (AAA group Cavendish subgroup) 'Robusta'[2].

Scoring system
The system is based on 15 characters that were chosen because they are dierent in Musa
acuminata and Musa balbisiana[1]. Each character is scored on a scale from one (typical Musa

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acuminata) to ve (typical Musa balbisiana). The possible total scores range from a minimum of 15
to a maximum of 75. The expected scores are 15 for AA and AAA, 35 for AAB, 45 for AB, 55 for ABB
and 75 for BB.
Photos courtesy of Angela Kepler
Charact
Musa acuminata Musa balbisiana
er
Pseudos
tem More or less heavily marked with Blotches very slight or absent
colour
brown or black blotches
Petiole
canal Margin erect or spreading, with
Margin inclosed, not winged but
scarious wings below, not clasping
clasping pseudostem
pseudostem
Peduncl
e Usually downy or hairy Glabrous

Pedicels
Short Long

Ovules
Two regular rows in each loculus Four irregular rows in each loculus

Bract
shoulder Usually high (ratio<0.28) Usually low (ratio>0.30)
*
Bract
curling Bracts reex and roll back after
Bracts do not reex
opening
Bract
shape Lanceolate or narrowly ovate,
Broadly ovate, not tapering sharply
tapering sharply from the shoulder
Bract
apex Acute Obtuse

Bract Red, dull purple or yellow outside; Distinctive brownish-purple outside;

colour
pink, dull purple or yellow inside bright crimson inside
Colour
fading Inside bract colour usually fades to Inside bract colour usually continuous

yellow towards the base to base

Bract
scars Prominent Scarcely prominent

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Free
tepal of
Variably corrugated below tip Rarely corrugated
male
ower
Male
ower Creamy white Variably ushed with pink
colour
Stigma
colour Orange or rich yellow Cream, pale yellow or pale pink

*x/y

Latin binomials nomenclature system

Before Simmonds and Shepherd's system, cultivated bananas were classied using the binomial
nomenclature system developed by Carl Linneaus that is used to this day to name species. In fact
Linneaus is the one who gave the name Musa paradisiaca to the banana. Being the rst Linnean
name given to a banana, Musa paradisiaca is technically the "type species" for the genus Musa.
Except that the banana Linneaus described is a cultivar which, as specialists later noted, does not
represent a species in any reasonable sense of the word. Nevertheless, this name and others that
were proposed in its wake, continue to be used to designate cultivars despite the existence of the
nomenclature system developed by Simmonds and Shepherd.

It is Ernest Cheesman who noticed that the model for Musa paradisiaca was in fact a type of
Plantain. When it was later realised that Musa paradisiaca and Musa sapientum a Silk type that
Linnaeus had also added to the genus were hybrids between Musa acuminata and Musa
balbisiana, some authors began to use the form Musa x paradisiaca and Musa x sapientum to
emphasise that fact.

Over the years several authors based the taxonomy of bananas on Musa paradisiaca and Musa
sapientum. Sometimes Musa sapientum was treated as a subspecies of Musa paradisiaca, but at
other times botanical priority was ignored and Musa paradisiaca was treated as a subspecies of
Musa sapientum. Moreover, since Musa paradisiaca is seedless, the subspecies seminifera was
created in order to accommodate the wild seeded forms. Giving a seed-bearing wild species the
status of subspecies to a seedless cultivar is a good example of the stultifying eect formal
nomenclature has had on the crop's taxonomy.

Indeed, as Cheesman noted in 1948, "Some botanists have regarded the seedless forms as ranking
with the fertile species and have bestowed Latin binomials upon them. Others have preferred to
regard them as varieties of one mythical species (usually called Musa sapientum) which is
supposed to exist somewhere in the wild and fertile condition Such mistakes... are not peculiar to
the genus Musa, but they are unusually conspicuous in this group"[3].

It was eventually recognised that most cultivars (except for certain types such as the Fei bananas)
are derived from either Musa acuminata alone or hybridized with Musa balbisiana. Some of these
cultivars are, like their wild relatives, diploids, i.e. they have two sets of chromosomes (one
inherited from each parent). The majority, however, are triploids, i.e they have three sets. This

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means that at one point, the reproductive cells of one of the parents did not undergo the normal
halving of its genome and produced unreduced gametes. The other parent contributed a normal
haploid genome.

This complexity made it dicult to devise a Latin name-based taxonomy that could cope with all
possible permutations. As Cheesman noted, "the classication of the cultivated varieties is almost a
separate problem from the general taxonomy of the genus, needing a dierent technique for its
[4]
solution, and confusion of the two makes both almost impossible" . He realised that the use of
Latin names for cultivars would have to be abandoned. The challenge of coming up with an
alternative was taken up by two of his young colleagues, Norman Simmonds and Kenneth
Shepherd[1].

References

1. Simmonds, N.W. and Shepherd, K. 1955. The taxonomy and origins of the cultivated bananas. Journal of the
Linnean Society of London. Botany 55:302-312.
2. Page 95 in Stover, R.H. and Simmonds, N.W. 1987. Bananas. 3 ed., Tropical Agricultural Series. Longman,
New York, USA. 468 Pp.
3. Cheesman, E.E. 1947. Classication of the bananas. I. The genus Ensete Horan and the genus Musa L. Kew
Bulletin(2):97-117.
4. Cheesman, E.E. 1948. Classication of the bananas. III. Critical notes on species: M. paradisiaca L. and M.
sapientum L.. Kew Bulletin(2):145-157.

See also on this website

Musapedia page on the domestication of the banana
Navigate the taxonomy of edible bananas on the cultivar diversity portal
Banana cultivar checklist of local names and synonyms
Where bananas come from in Under the peel, the blog of the ProMusa community, published on 7
October 2015
Portal on wild species of bananas

Further reading
David Constantines annotated list of Musa species
Perrier, X. et al. 2011. Multidisciplinary perspectives on banana (Musa spp.) domestication.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108(28).
Contributors to this page: Anne Vzina .
Page last modied on Thursday, 06 April 2017 13:54:59 CEST by Anne Vzina.
The original document is available at
http://www.promusa.org/Nomenclature+of+cultivated+bananas

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