Musa ingens
The plant species Musa ingens, also known as the giant highland banana or Oem, is the physically largest member of the family Musaceae and the only member of the section Ingentimusa. Growing in the tropical montane forests of New Guinea - Arfak Mountains Regency in Indonesia, its leaves can reach a length of and a width of. This, the largest herbaceous plant on earth, was completely unknown to science prior to 1960.Description
The "trunk" is typically up to in height, and with the leaves having a total height of. Since its discovery in 1954, though, taller individuals up to have been reported, but these measurements have yet to be verified by accurate measuring methods. Photos exist of M. ingens "trunks" up to in diameter at breast height. Its fruit grows in a cluster weighing up to consisting of about twenty "hands" of 16 to 20 fruit each. The cluster is borne on a peduncle up to thick and up to in length, again the longest of any known plant. The large inflorescence can hold over 300 oblong fruit, long, that are filled with blackish-brown seeds and yellowish pulp that is edible, sweet, and delicious when cooked, and according to some, reminiscent of fine butternut squash mixed with a sweet banana with a dash of tangy lime and citrus added.