Species
+

Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman

Abyssinian Banana, Abyssinian-banana, Banana Palm, Banana Tree

Climate known 53 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as enset or ensete, Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, pseudo-banana, false banana and wild banana, is a species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. The only country where the domesticated form of the plant is cultivated is Ethiopia, where it provides the staple food for approximately 20 million people. The name Ensete ventricosum was first published in the Kew Bulletin 1947, p. 101. Its synonyms include Musa arnoldiana De Wild., Musa ventricosa Welw. and Musa ensete J. F. Gmelin. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ensete ventricosum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ensete

Ensete is a genus of monocarpic flowering plants native to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. It is one of the three genera in the banana family, Musaceae, and includes the false banana or enset, an economically important food crop in Ethiopia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ensete”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Musaceae
Described by
(Welw.) Cheesman
Native to
Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre +11
Wild records
237 in range· 68 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Feb, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1192mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 196 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Ensete, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 1192 mm a year, wettest April at 196 mm, driest July at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.9 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ensete arnoldianum (De Wild.) Cheesman; Ensete bagshawei (Rendle & Greves) Cheesman; Ensete buchananii (Baker) Cheesman; Ensete davyae (Stapf) Cheesman; Ensete edule Bruce and 33 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Ensete, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (852 mm of 1192 mm) falls in November to January and March to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.1 °C against a yearly mean of 17.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1192 mm a year, wettest April at 196 mm, driest July at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1192 mm a year at the habitat, 852 mm of it November to January and March to May. Wettest month April at 196 mm, driest July at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 959 mm to 2226 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.9 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.9 °C, the absolute minimum 3.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.6 °C to 15.9 °C), warmest day 24.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 7.9 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Ensete, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1192 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 137 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°27.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–38RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 137 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 20–2824 / 21–2824 / 21–2822 / 20–2621 / 19–2620 / 17–2620 / 17–2621 / 18–2622 / 19–2723 / 19–2723 / 20–2723 / 20–27
Night °C14 / 10–1814 / 10–1814 / 11–1814 / 11–1713 / 9–1711 / 7–1611 / 7–1611 / 8–1612 / 9–1613 / 10–1713 / 9–1714 / 9–18
Rain mm94 / 33–26787 / 35–248160 / 88–283196 / 58–384141 / 20–31346 / 8–17736 / 5–20838 / 6–22841 / 8–22992 / 32–270132 / 56–223129 / 41–242
DLI38 / 31–4138 / 32–4337 / 32–4134 / 29–3831 / 28–3630 / 25–3429 / 25–3332 / 28–3636 / 32–4138 / 32–4337 / 31–4237 / 32–39
RH %62 / 51–6860 / 50–6862 / 54–6964 / 58–7265 / 56–7163 / 55–6963 / 54–7061 / 54–6961 / 53–6661 / 54–6662 / 55–6863 / 53–68

Each figure is the median across the 137 grid cells holding the 227 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1850:4184 (-2.525, 29.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 137 distinct grid cells holding the 227 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1850:4184 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -2.50_29.375, lapse-corrected +307 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2085 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBurundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Northern Provinces· introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Jawa, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“herbaceous tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.897, 37.755 · in the densest population, 87 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 237 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 68 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3430 km away. 245 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 237 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ensete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosumEnsete ventricosum

Photographs: (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Grete Pasch, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ensete ventricosum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Enset in Ethiopia: a poorly characterized but resilient starch staple
James S. Borrell, Manosh Kumar Biswas, Mark Goodwin, Guy Blomme (2018) · Annals of Botany
Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in the Hawassa Zuria District, Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia
Banchiamlak Nigussie Tefera, Young‐Dong Kim (2019) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Indigenous knowledge, use and on-farm management of enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) diversity in Wolaita, Southern Ethiopia
Temesgen Magule Olango, Bizuayehu Tesfaye, Marcello Catellani, Mario Enrico Pè (2014) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Effects of different land use systems on selected soil properties in South Ethiopia
Alemayehu Kiflu (2013) · Journal of Soil Science and Environmental Management
Bacterial wilt of enset (Ensete ventricosum) incited by Xanthomonas musacearum sp. n
Dagnatchew Yirgou, J. F. Bradbury (1968) · Phytopathology
Nutritive values of the drought tolerant food and fodder crop enset
Bashayir Jasem Mohammed, Gabel Martin, M Karlsson Laila (2013) · African Journal of Agricultural Research
Isolation and Physico‐chemical Properties of Enset Starch
Tsige Gebre‐Mariam, Addis Abeba, P. C. Schmidt (1996) · Starch - Stärke

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 45 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.