Category: Fruits and nuts

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Finnish sea captain finds new banana in Vietnam

Markku Häkkinen and Musa viridis. (The original caption said M haekkinenii, but Häkkinen himself corrected us, and would like to stop this error in its tracks.) Photo: Maarten Christenhusz.
Markku Häkkinen and Musa viridis. (The original caption said M haekkinenii, but Häkkinen himself corrected us, and would like to stop this error in its tracks.) Photo: Maarten Christenhusz.

Finnish sea captain and amateur botanist Markku Häkkinen has studied wild bananas for nearly 40 years. Now he has found the new species to science.

That’s from ScienceNordic. The new species is called Musa haekkinenii, and was described earlier this year in Phytotaxa by a team of Vietnamese taxonomists, who graciously named it after Markku. Congratulations to all concerned. And we look forward to seeing the full details on ProMusa.

LATER: No, wait.

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Nibbles: Rice farming, Funny teas, Funny fruits, Christmas fare, Online course, Seasonal genomes, Malaysia shares, School shares

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Nibbles: Survival seeds, Turkish agrobiodiversity, Mainstreaming nutrition, Hot times for conservation, Ethiopian sesame, Conserved DNA

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Nibbles: Desert afforestation, Breadfruit, Sustainable tea, Biofortification, Cassava breeding, Wheat breeding, Ancient microbrewery