See text Ensete is a genus of monocarpic flowering plants native to tropical regions of Africa and Asia.

However, the genus did not receive general recognition until 1947 when it was revived by E. E. Cheesman in the first of a series of papers in the Kew Bulletin on the classification of the bananas, with a total of 25 species.

Cheesman acknowledged that field study might reveal synonymy and the most recent review of the genus by Simmonds (1960) listed just six.

Recently the number has increased to seven as the Flora of China has, not entirely convincingly, reinstated Ensete wilsonii.

Ensete oregonense Clarno Formation, Oregon, United States, Eocene[5]