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Bananas

Bananas are edible fruits produced by the genus Musa, often referred to as berries, and can vary in size, color, and firmness. They are primarily grown for their fruit, with distinctions made between dessert bananas and cooking bananas (plantains) based on their texture and use. The plants are native to tropical regions and are cultivated in over 107 countries for various purposes, including food and ornamental use.

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44 views1 page

Bananas

Bananas are edible fruits produced by the genus Musa, often referred to as berries, and can vary in size, color, and firmness. They are primarily grown for their fruit, with distinctions made between dessert bananas and cooking bananas (plantains) based on their texture and use. The plants are native to tropical regions and are cultivated in over 107 countries for various purposes, including food and ornamental use.

Uploaded by

Wilty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The banana is an edible fruit, botanically a berry,[1][2] produced by several

kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa.[3] In some


countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains. The fruit is
variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with
soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be green, yellow, red,
purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top
of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas
come from two wild species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The
scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa
balbisiana, and Musa paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata M.
balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name
Musa sapientum is no longer used.

Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to
have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea.[4][5] They are grown in
at least 107 countries,[6] primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to
make fiber, banana wine and banana beer and as ornamental plants.

Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between "bananas" and "plantains".


Especially in the Americas and Europe, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet,
dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the
main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with
firmer, starchier fruit are called "plantains". In other regions, such as
Southeast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the
simple twofold distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.

The term "banana" is also used as the common name for the plants which
produce the fruit.[3] This can extend to other members of the genus Musa
like the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), pink banana (Musa velutina) and the
Fe'i bananas. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, like the snow
banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana
(Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are classified under the banana family,
Musaceae.

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