Species
+

Musa ornata Roxb.

Flowering banana, flowering banana

Climate known 47 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

Musa ornata, the flowering banana, is one of more than 50 species of banana in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae. Most of these species are large tropical evergreen perennials, mainly from lowland areas with high temperature and humidity. Musa ornata originated in southeast Asia, and is cultivated for its commercial and ornamental value. The fruit is attractive but tends to be inedible.

Text from Wikipedia, “Musa ornata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Musaceae
Described by
Roxb.
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya +2
Wild records
28 in range· 9 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2285mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jul 519 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–41DLI
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 Musa, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2285 mm a year, wettest July at 519 mm, driest January at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
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 Musa mexicana Matuda; Musa speciosa Ten.; Musa troglodytarum var. rubrifolia Kuntze.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Musa, 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, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

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 (1619 mm of 2285 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.0 °C against a yearly mean of 24.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 2285 mm a year, wettest July at 519 mm, driest January at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2285 mm a year at the habitat, 1619 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 519 mm, driest January at 6 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1336 mm to 3724 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: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 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 22, 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 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 12.4 °C, the absolute minimum 10.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 11.3 °C to 20.9 °C), warmest day 31.8 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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: 54 to 72% 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 26 °C in Dec to 32 °C in Apr; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2285 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 24 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °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°35°40°34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter020040060080010001200mm rainDLI 25–41RH 54–72 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 24 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 °C27 / 24–3129 / 27–3331 / 29–3432 / 29–3530 / 27–3328 / 24–3027 / 23–2927 / 23–2927 / 24–2928 / 25–2927 / 24–3026 / 23–30
Night °C15 / 11–2116 / 13–2319 / 16–2422 / 19–2623 / 19–2622 / 19–2622 / 18–2522 / 18–2521 / 18–2520 / 17–2418 / 15–2216 / 11–21
Rain mm6 / 1–2312 / 3–3836 / 12–7790 / 34–156211 / 110–310352 / 151–873519 / 166–1044447 / 159–703301 / 183–384227 / 126–34966 / 39–20718 / 7–51
DLI34 / 29–3737 / 34–4141 / 39–4340 / 38–4335 / 32–4027 / 24–3125 / 22–3025 / 22–3029 / 25–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3131 / 26–33
RH %56 / 53–5954 / 49–6056 / 48–6262 / 53–6765 / 60–7171 / 64–8071 / 67–8072 / 67–7971 / 66–7569 / 63–7062 / 58–6759 / 54–61

Each figure is the median across the 24 grid cells holding the 28 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 1608:5143 (9.575, 77.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °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 24 distinct grid cells holding the 28 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1608:5143 (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 9.50_76.875, lapse-corrected +514 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 934 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Myanmar· introduced: Cambodia, Jawa, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Trinidad-Tobago, Colombia, Peru
Kew's description“herbaceous tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker10.13, 76.687 · in the densest population, 13 records (46% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 28 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 9 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2188 km away. 589 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 28 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Musa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornataMusa ornata

Photographs: (c) scaup, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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 Musa ornata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Green Synthesis of Iron Nanoparticles using Aqueous Extract of Musa ornata Flower Sheath against Pathogenic Bacteria
S. Saranya, K. Vijayarani, S. Pavithra (2017) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis in the seeded diploid banana Musa ornata Roxb.
Sandra S. Cronauer-Mitra, A. D. Krikorian (1988) · Plant Cell Reports
Sap Phytochemical Compositions of Some Bananas in Thailand
Pongsagon Pothavorn, Kasipong Kitdamrongsont, Sasivimon Swangpol, Siripope Wongniam (2010) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Genomes, diversity and resistance gene analogues in Musa species
Muhammad Tehseen Azhar, J. S. Heslop‐Harrison (2008) · Cytogenetic and Genome Research
Variabilidade genética estimada entre diplóides de banana por meio de marcadores microssatélites
Édson Perito Amorim, Ronaldo Viana dos Reis, Janay Almeida dos Santos-Serejo, Vanusia Batista de Oliveira Amorim (2008) · Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira
Effect of Reinforcement of Hydrophobic Grade Banana (Musa ornata) Bark Fiber on the Physicomechanical Properties of Isotactic Polypropylene
Md. Mamunur Rashid, Sabrin A. Samad, M. A. Gafur, Md. Rakibul Qadir (2016) · International Journal of Polymer Science
Embryo culture and embryo rescue studies in wild Musa spp. (Musa ornata)
M. Dayarani, M. S. Dhanarajan, K. Arun, S. Uma (2014) · Journal of Applied Horticulture
Seed germination of the wild banana Musa ornata (Musaceae)
Mireya Burgos-Hernández, Gonzálo Castillo-Campos, Martín Mata‐Rosas, Dayana Rodríguez González (2014) · Seed Science and Technology
Genetic diversity and population genetic structure of wild banana Musa ornata (Musaceae) in Mexico
Mireya Burgos-Hernández, Dolores González, Gonzálo Castillo-Campos (2013) · Plant Systematics and Evolution

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.

Other Musa 3 in the reference

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 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.