Plant in full sun to part shade in a an organically rich soil in a wind-sheltered area such as courtyards, walled entry gardens, atriums and sheltered slots between buildings that it won't outgrow. Provide plenty of water throughout the growing season. In colder climates, it can be planted in large pots and sheltered indoors for the winter. It is cold hardy to about 25° F without damage. This large plant lends a unique tropical feel to the landscape and can be valuable for screening in coastal gardens. It has long been a popular choice for creating tropical effects in ornamental plantings in California.

Ensete ventricosum is native to Ethiopia. The celebrated Scottish explorer James Bruce of Kinnaird (1730-1794), the explorer who physically confirmed the source of the Blue Nile, was the first to note in 1769 that this plant was common in the marshes around Gondar in Abyssinia and noting its local name was "ensete". In 1852 seed was sent to Kew with the information that the local name for the plant was "Ansett" and later Kew made the plant relationship to bananas once the seedling plants grew up. In 1859 the Austrian botanist Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (particularly famous for first documenting Welwitschia mirabilis) officially described it, putting it in the same genus as the edible banana as Musa ventricosa but it was renamed Ensete ventricosum by the British botanist Ernest Entwistle Cheesman in 1947. The genus name comes the from Amharic (primary official language of Ethiopia) word "anset" which was the word used to describe this important food plant. Unlike the related true bananas in the genus Musa whose fruit is the edible part, it is the thick starchy pseudo-trunk and underground corm of Ensete ventricosum that is eaten. The specific epithet means having a swelling one side or pot-bellied in reference to the bulging emerging inflorescence.

The cultivar name is derived from the name Musa sp. var. Maureli that the French botanist Désiré Georges Jean Marie Bois originally named the plant to honor J. Maurel, who first drew the attention of the French authorities in Ethiopia to the existence of red-leaved mutant plants of Ensete ventricosum. It is shorter and thicker than another less common red leafed clone that is called "Montbeliardii" to honor the Marquis de Scey-Montbeliard de Brun.

It has been noted that cultivation conditions can have quite profound effects on plant color stature. Our mother plants were originally from tissue culture plants but we later cored stock plants to promote abundant new shoots that were then divided out. We grew and listed this this tropical plant from 1981 until we discontinued actively growing it in 2007 because we felt it did not fit into our main product mix of sustainable plants for mediterranean climates. 

Information displayed on this page about Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.