Musa itinerans

In China, the natural habitat of this banana is increasingly under threat as forests are being cleared for commercial agriculture (POWO 2019). Some of the varieties of the species are only known from small subpopulations and are likely to be threatened (Häkkinen et al. 2008). Despite this, it is not thought that there are any major threats in action that are likely to affect the conservation status at the species level in a short time.

The genus Musa is listed in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) which aims to guarantee sustainable agriculture and food security through the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use (FAO 2009). There are twenty five M. itinerans germplasm accessions of wild origin held worldwide: of these, 23 are seed collections held by the Millennium Seed Bank and collected from within the native range (eighteen from Vietnam, four from Taiwan and one from China); the other two accessions are held by the Biodiversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre in Belgium and were collected from plants in Thailand and China (Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). At least seven botanical gardens are sites of ex situ conservation for this species with a precise number obscured by the listing of varietal forms (BGCI 2019). This species is known to occur in multiple protected areas across its range, so passive conservation is presumed in these localities (Protected Planet 2019); however, there is no evidence of active management or monitoring in these areas. M. itinerans has not been previously assessed at the species level, however, the varieties chiumei and kavalanensis have been assessed as Critically Endangered in Taiwan (Editorial Committee of the Red List of Taiwan Plants 2017).