The genus Musa includes about 70 species distributed throughout the Asian tropics and subtropics from India, Southern China and Southern Japan in the north to Northern Australia in the south and the islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The haploid chromosome number in the subgenus Musa is 11 while in the subgenus Callimusa the haploid chromosome number is 10 except for Musa beccarii where 2n = 2x = 18. Musa ingens has a haploid chromosome number of 7 and is classified separate from the two subgenera. Several of the Musa species are appreciated as ornamentals in gardens and greenhouses, but the most important wild species are the relatives of the edible bananas and plantains (M. acuminata, M. balbisiana and M. schizocarpa from the subgenus Musa) and the relatives of the Fe’I (M. peekelii, M. lolodensis and M. maclayi in the subgenus Callimusa).