VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Do you know if the largest banana tree in the world is in Indonesia, precisely in the Afak Mountains, West Papua ? The Latin name is Musa ingens or Musa ingens NW Slimmonds. In the local language, the residents of Banfot Village, Tambrauw Regency, West Papua call this giant banana by the name ndowin or apit sepoh. Banana stem height reaches 24 to 30 meters, equivalent to 6 to 7 times the banana tree in general. The diameter of the Musa ingens banana tree reaches a size of 95 centimeters. Even, the trunk diameter of the Musa ingens tree can reach one meter to two meters. While the midrib of Musa ingens has a length of up to five meters with a width of about one meter.

This giant banana is usually used by local people. Usually, this banana midrib is used to store game or garden produce. Meanwhile, the banana leaves are used by local residents for roofs of emergency houses in the forest, sitting mats, and food mats. While the fruit itself cannot be enjoyed by residents, because usually the birds of paradise eat the bananas. Quoted from Indonesia.go.id, this giant banana was first collected as a specimen by Womersley JS and Simmonds NW, on December 22, 1954 in New Guinea. This Musa ingens banana has fruit with a length of up to 20 cm with a fruit size of 4-6 cm in diameter. One bunch of bananas can weigh up to 60 kilograms. The size of the bunch is generally about 35-50 cm in diameter, 70-80 cm in length. Banana peel color is green when young and yellowish when ripe. The fruit also has quite a lot of seeds with a size larger or the same as a banana in general.

The giant banana, Musa ingens, is one of Papua's endemic plants. So far, such a banana tree has only been discovered in the Arfak Mountains of West Papua with an altitude of 100 to 200 above sea level. One of the locations where these bananas exist is in Kwau Village, Mokwam District, Manokwari Regency, which shares a border with the Arfak Mountains Regency. The distribution of this species is only on the island of Papua, including Manokwari (Arfak Mountains Nature Reserve), Kaimana, Wondama Bay, and Fak-Fak (Central Fak-Fak Nature Reserve).
In Yapen District (Central Yapen Nature Reserve) and in Tambrauw District (Banfot and Esyom Muara Kali Ehrin), these giant bananas usually grow in secondary forests or former garden forests and on either side of the road with soil with substrate or deep soil solum. This type of banana grows in clusters or separately and is usually associated with Lithocarpus rufovillosus, Musa arfakiana, Musa balbisina and Dodonaea viscosa.