Known as "False Banana" or Abyssinian or Ethiopian Banana is a 6-12 m plant which flowers and carries fruits only once before it dies after 1-2 years (as a perennial plant)...
It isn´t a tree but a giant herb!
It isn´t a tree but a giant herb!
Ensete ventricosum, by Walter Hood Fitch, 1861.
The part of the plant that looks like a trunk is really a false stem called pseudostem, formed by the tight overlapping of leaves forming a casing or sheat; the pulp in the pseudostems and rootstock are eaten...
The pseudostem continues to raise as the leaves emerge one after the other until it reaches its maximum height and then the inflorescens emerge at the top of the plant which are tasty and are eaten cooked.
The plant is of the same family as the banana, but the fruits are only consumed in times of necessity.
The pea size seeds are used as beads, to make rosaries or rattles and can be eaten in times of starvation,
Finally the leaves can be used for thatching houses and the stalk to make fibres for ropes, sacks and baskets.
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