The plant has red sap and an upright flowering and fruiting stem.[5] The fruits are rounded and arranged closely together in bunches – partly joined along their edges in some varieties.[4]
The species was named after the explorer and naturalist Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, who first described it:
"Besides the cultivated varieties, which have been obtained by exchange between the villages, there is to be found in the forest a wild Banana (Musa Maclayi F. v. M. [Ferdinand von Mueller]), compared to the cultivated varieties, with a tall stem (nearly twice as tall), with narrow stiff leaves and small (not edible) fruits full of seeds."
^ abPloetz, R.C.; Kepler, A.K.; Daniells, J. & Nelson, S.C. (2007). "Banana and Plantain: An Overview with Emphasis on Pacific Island Cultivars". In Elevitch, C.R (ed.). Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry(PDF). Hōlualoa, Hawai'i: Permanent Agriculture Resources (PAR). Retrieved 2013-01-10.
^ abSharrock, S. (2001). "Diversity in the genus Musa: focus on Australimusa". In INIBAP (ed.). Networking Banana and Plantain: INIBAP Annual Report 2000(PDF). Montpellier, France: International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain. pp. 14–19. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
