Scientific Name :Ensete ventricosum Vernacular Name :Igitembe Family name :Igitembe Geographic Distribution :Clearings or near streams in montane rainforest, 1900-2300 m.
Botanical Description Robust perennial plant with swollen base, up to 2-5 m tall, preudotrunc formed by leaves growing up to 12 m tall in flower. Leaves in a basal rosette, up to 7 m long and 1 m wide, bridht to dark green, oblong to oblanceolate, with back spots at base, dying back before flowering. Inflorescence pendulous, up to 1-2 m long, bracts densely crowded, covering numerous fragrant flowers. Flowers whitish green to pale lilac, up to 3-6 cm lonf. Fruit a banana, up to 8-15 cm long and five cm wide, curved, becoming dry and orange when mature, inside with largr black seeds.
Medicinal Use The leaves are used in Rwandese traditional medicine to treat dysentery. A decoction of the stem is used to treat liver problems. Leaf or fruit juice, as well as bunt stalk ash, is taken for hepatic diseases. A spoon of powder from dried and grounded of the underground stem (rhizome) of Sonchus luxirians are infused in 1 liter of banana juice and drunk three times a day for several days until healing of cirrhosis (Abalahman). In Ethiopia ensete is used to treat broken bones.
Other Use It is planted as ornamental .The fruit are eaten by monkeys.
