It is one of two plants sent by Dr. W John Kress of the Smithsonian Institution last year. They were collected about 15 km from Kunming, China during a ginger symposium held in May 1995. The countryside around Kunming is, as are many parts of China, intensively cultivated. Often every square meter of land is put to some agricultural use. Musella , it seems, is a common sight in this region.
Farmers even use the plants as pig fodder.
Oddly, almost no one outside of that region has seen it. Kunming is located at the same latitude as the middle Florida Keys and about 5000 feet above sea level. The climate is spring-like, similar that of northern California and Oregon. My first encounter with this strange banana-like plant occurred at a slide show at the 1992 Heliconia Society International biennial meeting in Cairns, Australia. A guest speaker from China presented some slides of possible ornamentals for the future.