Musa lutea

The native range is thought to largely fall within the Northern Indochina subtropical forests ecoregion, as delineated by Olson et al. (2001).Forests in Việt Nam have been extensively cleared, and only very small fragments on steep mountainsides remain in this heavily cultivated area (MacKinnon 1997, S. Kallow pers. comm. 2020). The major threats to biodiversity in the Vietnamese part of the ecoregion are presented by land clearing for small-holder cultivation, particularly rice and cinnamon, and logging. Although human population density is low, cultivation in steep and unproductive land accounts for large-scale forest clearing (Carpenter et al. 2001, S. Kallow pers. comm. 2020). It should be noted, though, that the impact of deforestation on members of the Musa genus is somewhat difficult to quantify: while clear-felling or land conversion is likely to be detrimental to the species, wild bananas spring up in transient, often man-made, habitats and thus may benefit from human disturbance to some extent (Simmonds 1962). Although collections of this species have been made from disturbed areas, the extent to which it is tolerant of disturbance is not clear. It is also suspected that one former collection site (Harder #2429) may have been submerged following the construction of the Na Hang dam. Research into the scale and severity of threats affecting the species is recommended.

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). The species is not known to have been explicitly recorded from protected areas; however, distribution records are imprecise and its range overlaps with multiple protected areas so it may occur within some of these (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2020); in particular, it has been recorded in very close proximity (<1 km) to Thượng Tiến and Nà Hẩu Nature Reserves (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2020, A. Mertens pers. comm. 2021). If the species does occur within any protected areas, passive conservation is presumed. A single M. lutea germplasm accession of wild origin is held by the Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium (Ruas et al. 2017, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). A living collection is reported to held at the Phu Tho Fruit Research centre (Häkkinen 2010) along with seed collections from three wild subpopulations (A. Mertens pers. comm. 2021, V.D. Toan pers. comm. 2021); the species is not known to be conserved ex situ elsewhere in botanic gardens (BGCI 2019).