Musa Balbisiana

Musa balbisiana is a species of wild banana native to eastern South Asia, northern Southeast Asia and southern China. It is one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas along with Musa acuminata. It grows lush leaves in clumps and grows with a more upright habit than most cultivated bananas. Flowers grow in inflorescences coloured red to maroon. The fruit are between blue and green. They are considered inedible because of the seeds they contain. It may be assumed that wild bananas used to be cooked and eaten or agriculturalists would not have developed the cultivated banana.

Seeded Musa balbisiana are called "butuhan" ('with seeds') in the Philippines. Natural parthenocarpic clones occur through polyploidy and produce edible bananas. Examples of which are wild Saba Bananas.

They were first described in 1820 by the Italian botanist Luigi Aloysius Colla.

The leaves of this banana variety are used in Thailand to wrap locally-produced sweets and the inflorescence for the treatment of ulcers in traditional medicine.