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I really like this plant--I'm just wondering what its name is (perhaps genus+species). I think this plant grows in the tropical rainforest in Malaysia.

enter image description here

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

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    $\begingroup$ To me it looks similar to a young Banana plant (Musa sp.). The genus is native to south east asia, and there are many wild species. $\endgroup$
    – fileunderwater
    Mar 18, 2014 at 9:51
  • $\begingroup$ I agree, this looks a lot like the banana plant. $\endgroup$
    – biogirl
    Mar 18, 2014 at 14:38
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    $\begingroup$ Reposted as answer. Hopefully a botanist can chime in later. @biogirl $\endgroup$
    – fileunderwater
    Mar 18, 2014 at 14:57
  • $\begingroup$ @masoug the stem of the banana plant is peculiar. If you could upload the picture of your plant's stem, it would be helpful $\endgroup$
    – biogirl
    Mar 18, 2014 at 16:18
  • $\begingroup$ If it is a banana plant; then its trunk(invisible in this photo) is not actually stem. The actual stem stays underground. the trunk is actually the leaf-bases sheathing around. The stem comes-out in the form of "scape" (a sort of inflorescence stick) at a season. (quite-lin a manner of onion-scape); which contains the banana -inflorescence on its top. $\endgroup$
    – Always Confused
    Aug 10, 2016 at 12:45

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I'm no botanist, but this looks very similar to a young banana plant (Musa sp.) to me. The genus is native to south east asia, and there are many wild species. There are also a couple of other similarly looking genera in the banana family (Musaceae).

Reasons why I'm thinking banana: the plant has tongue-shaped leafs with fairly short petioles, and the leaves have clear horizontal, unbranched veins and horizontal tears (common on banana plants). The leaves come from a single apical meristem and are scattered (not in e.g. distinct rows). Banana plants also have pseudostems, made out of packed leaf sheaths, but the stem cannot be seen in your picture. Here is a webpage on banana morphology, if you want to get some further information.

Some examples:

enter image description here enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm not botanist either, but I think you are right--the pattern of the leaves/stem matches the banana plant. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – masoug
    Mar 19, 2014 at 14:33

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