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Musa balbisiana; photograph (c) Nathan Van Cooten, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Nathan Van Cooten, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-27

Musa balbisiana Colla

Plantain; Banana; Sweet wild banana

Musaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +18 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Musa balbisiana, photograph (c) Mark Wagner, some rights reserved (CC BY)Musa balbisiana, photograph (c) Mark Wagner, some rights reserved (CC BY)Musa balbisiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMusa balbisiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMusa balbisiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMusa balbisiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 48 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.5°C
Record low 2.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
May, Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,132mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–33DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Musa balbisiana, also known simply as plantain, is a wild-type species of banana. It is one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas, along with Musa acuminata.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Musa balbisiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,475 mm of 1,949 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 23.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,949 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,475 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 335 mm, driest month December at 24 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,405 mm to 3,162 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,132 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,949 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.5 °C, the absolute minimum 2.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.8 °C to 18.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -93 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Musa balbisiana through the yearWarmest months May, June, July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 12.8 °C; 1,949 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°39.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 21–33RH 60–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 150 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 17–2722 / 18–3025 / 20–3228 / 23–3329 / 24–3229 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 25–2924 / 22–2821 / 19–27
Night °C13 / 10–1814 / 11–1917 / 14–2220 / 17–2422 / 20–2524 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2521 / 18–2417 / 14–2213 / 10–20
Rain mm27 / 8–17132 / 15–17563 / 31–218125 / 73–231251 / 169–329305 / 192–475335 / 177–521332 / 259–510252 / 158–402143 / 83–30660 / 27–22824 / 9–172
DLI22 / 14–3125 / 16–3531 / 20–4033 / 26–4032 / 29–3631 / 26–3530 / 23–4029 / 24–3729 / 26–3326 / 23–3023 / 19–3021 / 16–29
RH %61 / 54–6661 / 52–6861 / 51–6863 / 54–6865 / 62–6968 / 64–7268 / 65–7369 / 65–7267 / 64–7065 / 60–6862 / 57–6560 / 55–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 150 grid cells holding the 167 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1356:5704 (22.175, 105.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 150 distinct grid cells holding 167 of the 167 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1356:5704 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_105.000, lapse-corrected -93 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 89 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea · introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Taiwan, West Himalaya, Borneo, Malaya, Hawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker21.639, 104.074 · in the densest population, 45 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“herbaceous tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 261 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 167 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 81 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5531 km away. 171 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 94 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 261 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Musa balbisiana, photograph 1did not loadMusa balbisiana, photograph 2did not loadMusa balbisiana, photograph 3did not loadMusa balbisiana, photograph 4did not loadMusa balbisiana, photograph 5did not loadMusa balbisiana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Mark Wagner, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Alocasia cucullata Alocasia cucullata Chinese taro Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Pandanus urophyllus Pandanus urophyllus Pandanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dieter Albrecht Pottsia laxiflora Apocynaceae Bauhinia variegata Bauhinia variegata Mountain ebony Photo: CC BY-SA, Alexe VallentinIlligera celebica Illigera celebica Hernandiaceae Photo: CC BY, W Rao Dendrobium aduncum Orchidaceae

Other Musa 29 in the reference

Musa acuminata Musa acuminata Edible banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh SengMusa banksii Musa banksii Maroon-stemmed Banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldMusa basjoo Musa basjoo Japanese banana Photo: CC BY, rhizMusa beccarii Musa beccarii Pisang Tajak Photo: CC BY, Brodie Cass TalbottMusa borneensis Musa borneensis Angkadan banana Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Musa bukensis Musaceae Musa campestris Musa campestris Swamp Banana Photo: CC BY, Kai SquiresMusa cheesmanii Musa cheesmanii Cheesman's Banana Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGMusa coccinea Musa coccinea Scarlet banana Photo: CC BY, Luis G RestrepoMusa gracilis Musa gracilis Johore Banana Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei GanMusa haekkinenii Musa haekkinenii Musaceae Photo: CC BY, SnowFireMusa ingens Musa ingens Giant Highland Banana Photo: CC BY, Shawn O'Donnell all 30 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Musa bakeri; Musa martini; Musa martinii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Musaceae
Described by
Colla
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +17
Wild records
261 in range · 81 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 9 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_105.000, lapse-corrected -93 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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