Family Musaceae

The most important staple root crop of Ethiopia, enset is sometimes dubbed “false banana” due to its botanical relationship and physical similarity to the banana plant. The fruit of the enset plant is not edible, however; only the corm and parts of the stem are. Wild enset grows through-out Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but it is domesticated solely in Ethiopia, where the corm is mashed and fermented for making a steamed flat bread, dried and then boiled to make a hot beverage or porridge, and, more rarely, cut into pieces and cooked over hot stones. A second nickname translates as “the tree against hunger,” an acknowledgment of the plant’s ability to tolerate drought conditions and to flourish in relatively small spaces. In recent years, however, its value as a food to fight famine has decreased because of continuing drought conditions that have forced farmers to harvest the plants too early, leaving a large gap of time before a new crop can mature.