ABSTRACT
Plantains are hybrids between edible diploids deriving from the species Musa acuminata and the wild species Musa bal-bisiana. They probably originated in the area in and around New Guinea. The plantains have no natural habitat. Since the edible diploids from which they partly derive were domesticated plants, the generation of the plantains could only have occurred at sites where farmers modified the natural vegetation. A branch of the Central Sudanese-speaking group became established in the northeastern part of the dense forest. The current descendants of these people include the Mangbetu, who are renowned for their great interest in plantains and who consequently keep a very high diversity of plantain cultivars. The morphological study of Musa phytoliths has not differentiated between phytoliths of plantains and of other cultivated bananas. Musa phytoliths detected in archaeological context in the rain forest of Cameroon almost certainly belong to the plantain subgroup, since no local names point to any other banana type.
