World's longest banana infructescence found in the forests of Andamans

 

An Infructescence of about 4.2 metres has been re-corded in a species of wild banana from Andaman and Nicobar islands, mak-ing it the longest infructes-cence recorded in bananas across the world. The de tails of the discovery were published in an interna tional peer reviewed science journal Botany Let ters earlier this year.The infructescence was recorded in an endemic species of wild banana, the Musa indandamanensis, that was first recorded from a remote tropical for est near Krishna Nala re-serve forest on the Anda man and Nicobar islands in 2012 and found mention in a science journal in 2014.Initially when the spe cies of Musa indandama nensis was discovered on the Little Andaman islands by Lal Ji Singh, head of the regional centre of Botani A specimem of a long banana infructescence at a museum on Andman and Nicobar Islands.Survey of India in the Andaman and Nicobar Is land, the infructescence of the specimens were about 3 metres long. Usually, the infructescence (fruit bunch lux axis) of cultiva ble species of bananas is about 1 metre long, the scientist said.A few months ago, Dr Singh and his team came across the species of wild banana in Campbell Bay in the Nicobar group of is lands, and the infructes To solve this puzzle ollise Tact to our words 13 Sind has dear to get one other Specimens recorded in the past. "Mu sa indandamanensis L.J Singh holds the record for having the long infructes cence of banana in general and wild bananas in partic ular which is an endemic variety found in ANI (An-daman and Nicobar Is lands)," reads the paper published by Botany Let-ters earlier this year. "Though the length of the trees recorded in 2012 and recently are the same, standing at about 11 metres in height, the girth of the stem of the wild banana trees differ. The species re corded from Little Anda mans had girth of less than 100 cm, however the speci mens recorded from Campbell Bay had a larger girth of about 110 cm," Dr. Singh said. including the Indian Mu seum in Kolkata, where a 4.2 metre long specimen has been on display in the industrial section of the Botanical Survey of India for several months. Anoth er specimen over four metres is in the Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre museum. Since the species has been assessed as Critically Endangered, as a part of ex situ conservation of Musa indandamanen sis, saplings of this species have been introduced in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Gar den in Howrah, Botanical Garden of Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, and the Central Regional Centre in Prayagraj What makes the wild banana Me sa indandamanensis im-portant, is the natural ge netic resource for plant breeders to develop high yielding and diseaне пе Specimens on display After the discovery of the infructescence, specimens have been sent to tutane variecies. A network groups in N district is de transporter - deliver va produce to lenge when a rural foo brand, was l women from on Internatio Day on Marc battle was another grou from the s formed a man named Rashe find retailers sale avenues. They began the district be nearby. In less months, such teams have bes gether in Dima land's commerc the border win about 190 km a the State's capita