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Musa ingens

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Musa ingens, the giant highland banana (also called Oem), is the largest member of the banana family. It grows in the tropical montane forests of New Guinea, especially in the Arfak Mountains in the Indonesian part of the island. It is the largest herbaceous plant in the world. Its leaves reach about 5 meters long and 1 meter wide. What looks like a trunk is made from tightly packed leaf stalks and can reach about 15 meters in height, with the leaves totaling around 20 meters in height. Some unverified reports say taller plants may reach 30 meters. A photo shows the trunk can be as wide as about 94 cm across. The fruit grows in a large cluster weighing up to 60 kg, with about twenty hands of 16–20 fruit each. The inflorescence can be more than 15 meters long and holds over 300 fruits, each about 18 cm long, containing blackish-brown seeds and a yellowish edible pulp. The species is listed as Least Concern for conservation.


This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:25 (CET).