Musaceae - Banana family

Tall herbs. Leaves very large, spirally arranged, the leaf-sheaths forming a cylindric pseudostem. Lamina oblong. Inflorescence appearing to arise from the apex of the pseudostem. Flowers unisexual; female flowers on proximal parts of infl, male on distal, borne in groups subtended by spathaceous bracts. Calyx spathaceous, splitting down one side, with ± 3 teeth at apex. Corolla lobes 3, two of them adnate to calyx tube, the third separate and directed downwards. Stamens 6, but usually 1 rudimentary. Ovary inferior, 3-locular. Fruit a large elongated fleshy 3-locular berry containing (in the wild species) numerous subspherical seeds.

Worldwide: 6 genera and 200 species, tropics. (These numbers include the Strelitziaceae which I have treated as a separate family).

Malawi: 1 cultivated genus and 1 cultivated taxon.