The family has been practically universally recognized by taxonomists, although with differing circumscriptions. Older circumscriptions of the family commonly included the genera now included in
Heliconiaceae and
Strelitziaceae. The
APG III system, of 2009 (unchanged from the
APG system, 1998), assigns Musaceae to the order
Zingiberales in the clade
commelinids in the
monocots. The oldest fossil evidence of the family is thought to possibly be the
Late Cretaceous palynotaxon Spirematospermum chandlerae from
North Carolina, unlike most other
Spirematospermum species which are thought to represent members of Zingiberaceae. In contrast, "
Musa"
cardiosperma from the
Maastrichtian Intertrappean Beds of
India, formerly considered the earliest record of the genus
Musa, is now thought to be a member of the
Zingiberaceae and has been reclassified into the extinct genus
Momordiocarpon. The oldest unequivocal fossil of the family is
Ensete oregonense from the
Eocene Clarno Formation of
Oregon, although its actual placement within the family is uncertain. Hybridization and polyploidy was the cause of much confusion in the taxonomy of the genus
Musa that was not resolved until the 1940s and 1950s. In this clearing up of the taxonomy,
Ernest Entwistle Cheesman in 1947 revived the genus name
Ensete which had been published in 1862, by Horaninow, but had not been accepted.
Musa section
Musella Franch. was raised to the rank of genus by H.W. Li in 1978 for the Chinese species
Musella lasiocarpa, which was originally described in
Musa in 1889 and transferred to
Ensete by Cheesman in 1948. The species combines characters like the swollen stems of
Ensete with the clonal habit of
Musa. Acceptance of
Musella has varied; , the
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families considers it a synonym of
Ensete, other sources dispute this view. ==References==