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87-406: A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa . In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas . The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with

174-519: A peel , which may have a variety of colors when ripe. It grows upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless ( parthenocarp ) cultivated bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana , or hybrids of them. Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia ; they were probably domesticated in New Guinea . They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to

261-564: A risk factor for cardiovascular diseases . Fruit consumption is under preliminary research for the potential to improve nutrition and affect chronic diseases. Regular consumption of fruit is generally associated with reduced risks of several diseases and functional declines associated with aging. For food safety , the CDC recommends proper fruit handling and preparation to reduce the risk of food contamination and foodborne illness . Fresh fruits and vegetables should be carefully selected; at

348-422: A banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike or inflorescence . A stem develops which grows up inside the pseudostem, carrying the immature inflorescence until eventually it emerges at the top. Each pseudostem normally produces a single inflorescence, also known as the "banana heart". After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots will normally have developed from

435-450: A blackberry is an aggregate-accessory fruit, and an apple is a simple-accessory fruit. Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless fruits . Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially grapefruit , mandarin oranges , navel oranges , satsumas ), table grapes , and of watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness

522-564: A certain time, harmful bacteria may grow on them and increase the risk of foodborne illness. Dwarf Cavendish banana Cavendish bananas were named after William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire . Though not the first known banana specimens in Europe, around 1834 Cavendish received a shipment of bananas courtesy of the chaplain of Alton Towers (then the seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury ). His gardener, Sir Joseph Paxton cultivated them in

609-475: A few days, the fruit begins to ripen and is distributed for final sale. Ripe bananas can be held for a few days at home. If bananas are too green, they can be put in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight to speed up the ripening process. The excessive use of fertilizers contributes greatly to eutrophication in streams and lakes, harming aquatic life, while expanding banana production has led to deforestation. As soil nutrients are depleted, more forest

696-522: A head, is produced first. After fertilization , each flower in the cluster develops into a drupe; as the drupes expand, they develop as a connate organ, merging into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarp . Progressive stages of multiple flowering and fruit development can be observed on a single branch of the Indian mulberry, or noni . During the sequence of development, a progression of second, third, and more inflorescences are initiated in turn at

783-460: A hybrid- polyploid complex; hybrids can be diploid, triploid, tetraploid, or pentaploid, i.e. they may have 2, 3, 4, or 5 sets of chromosomes . This makes them difficult to breed as hybrids are often sterile, in addition to the challenge of breeding seedless (parthenocarpic) varieties. The Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research has bred a seedless banana that is resistant to both Panama disease and black Sigatoka disease. The team made use of

870-498: A lesser extent to make banana paper and textiles , while some are grown as ornamental plants . The world's largest producers of bananas in 2022 were India and China, which together accounted for approximately 26% of total production. Bananas are eaten raw or cooked in recipes varying from curries to banana chips , fritters , fruit preserves, or simply baked or steamed. Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between dessert "bananas" and cooking "plantains": this works well enough in

957-549: A much wider range of cultivars than large commercial plantations do, and in Southeast Asia—the center of diversity for bananas, both wild and cultivated—the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" does not work. Many bananas are used both raw and cooked. There are starchy cooking bananas which are smaller than those eaten raw. The range of colors, sizes and shapes is far wider than in those grown or sold in Africa, Europe or

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1044-644: A new plant some distance away from the parent. Other fruits have evolved flattened and elongated wings or helicopter-like blades, e.g., elm , maple , and tuliptree . This mechanism increases dispersal distance away from the parent via wind. Other wind-dispersed fruit have tiny " parachutes ", e.g., dandelion , milkweed , salsify . Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean, thereby spreading their seeds. Other fruits that can disperse via water are nipa palm and screw pine . Some fruits have evolved propulsive mechanisms that fling seeds substantial distances – perhaps up to 100 m (330 ft) in

1131-680: A number of different forms from a wide range of families, including carrot , parsnip , parsley , cumin . An aggregate fruit is also called an aggregation, or etaerio ; it develops from a single flower that presents numerous simple pistils . Each pistil contains one carpel ; together, they form a fruitlet. The ultimate (fruiting) development of the aggregation of pistils is called an aggregate fruit , etaerio fruit , or simply an etaerio . Different types of aggregate fruits can produce different etaerios, such as achenes, drupelets, follicles, and berries. Some other broadly recognized species and their etaerios (or aggregations) are: The pistils of

1218-460: A problematic issue for taxonomists. Linnaeus originally placed bananas into two species based only on their uses as food: Musa sapientum for dessert bananas and Musa paradisiaca for plantains . More species names were added, but this approach proved to be inadequate for the number of cultivars in the primary center of diversity of the genus, Southeast Asia. Many of these cultivars were given names that were later discovered to be synonyms . In

1305-442: A prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked . A fruit results from the fertilizing and maturing of one or more flowers. The gynoecium , which contains the stigma-style-ovary system, is centered in the flower-head, and it forms all or part of the fruit. Inside the ovary(ies) are one or more ovules . Here begins a complex sequence called double fertilization : a female gametophyte produces an egg cell for

1392-469: A series of papers published from 1947 onward, Ernest Cheesman showed that Linnaeus's Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca were cultivars and descendants of two wild seed-producing species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana , both first described by Luigi Aloysius Colla . Cheesman recommended the abolition of Linnaeus's species in favor of reclassifying bananas according to three morphologically distinct groups of cultivars – those primarily exhibiting

1479-404: A single flower with numerous pistils typically produces an aggregate fruit ; and the merging of several flowers, or a 'multiple' of flowers, results in a 'multiple' fruit. A simple fruit is further classified as either dry or fleshy. To distribute their seeds, dry fruits may split open and discharge their seeds to the winds, which is called dehiscence . Or the distribution process may rely upon

1566-498: A source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate ) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language and culinary usage, fruit normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet (or sour) and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage,

1653-752: A wild banana of Arunachal Pradesh , India Musa balbisiana , Plantain of South, East, and Southeast Asia Musa x troglodytarum , Fe'i banana of French Polynesia Musa maclayi of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Musa textilis , Abacá or Manila hemp of the Philippines Musa beccarii , a wild banana of Sabah Musa coccinea , Scarlet banana of China and Vietnam Musella lasiocarpa , Golden lotus banana of China Ensete ventricosum , Enset or false banana of Africa Work by Li and colleagues in 2024 identifies three subspecies of M. acuminata , namely sspp. banksii , malaccensis , and zebrina , as contributing substantially to

1740-859: Is a type of fruit (and not a seed), and a seed is a ripened ovule . In culinary language, a fruit is the sweet- or not sweet- (even sour-) tasting produce of a specific plant (e.g., a peach, pear or lemon); nuts are hard, oily, non-sweet plant produce in shells ( hazelnut , acorn ). Vegetables , so-called, typically are savory or non-sweet produce ( zucchini , lettuce, broccoli, and tomato). but some may be sweet-tasting (sweet potato). Examples of botanically classified fruit that are typically called vegetables include cucumber , pumpkin , and squash (all are cucurbits ); beans , peanuts , and peas (all legumes ); and corn , eggplant , bell pepper (or sweet pepper), and tomato. Many spices are fruits, botanically speaking, including black pepper , chili pepper , cumin and allspice . In contrast, rhubarb

1827-406: Is allowed to produce two shoots at a time; a larger one for immediate fruiting and a smaller "sucker" or "follower" to produce fruit in 6–8 months. As a non-seasonal crop, bananas are available fresh year-round. They are grown in some 135 countries. In global commerce in 2009, by far the most important cultivars belonged to the triploid Musa acuminata AAA group of Cavendish group bananas. Disease

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1914-419: Is at least 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) deep, has good drainage and is not compacted. They are fast-growing plants, with a growth rate of up to 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) per day. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a stalk ( petiole ) and a blade ( lamina ). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. The edges of

2001-427: Is cleared for plantations. This causes soil erosion and increases the frequency of flooding. Voluntary sustainability standards such as Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade are being used to address some of these issues. Banana production certified in this way grew rapidly at the start of the 21st century to represent 36% of banana exports by 2016. However, such standards are applied mainly in countries which focus on

2088-436: Is conserved in multiple gene banks around the world. The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure called a corm . Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy with a treelike appearance, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a pseudostem composed of multiple leaf-stalks ( petioles ). Bananas grow in a wide variety of soils, as long as it

2175-418: Is formed from the ovary after flowering (see Fruit anatomy ). Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and other animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; humans, and many other animals, have become dependent on fruits as

2262-704: Is included in Ibn al-'Awwam 's 12th-century agricultural work, Kitāb al-Filāḥa ( Book on Agriculture ). During the Middle Ages, bananas from Granada were considered among the best in the Arab world. Bananas were certainly grown in the Christian Kingdom of Cyprus by the late medieval period. Writing in 1458, the Italian traveller and writer Gabriele Capodilista wrote favourably of the extensive farm produce of

2349-413: Is inherited paternally. This facilitates taxonomic study of species and subspecies relationships. In regions such as North America and Europe, Musa fruits offered for sale can be divided into small sweet "bananas" eaten raw when ripe as a dessert, and large starchy "plantains" or cooking bananas , which do not have to be ripe. Linnaeus made this distinction when naming two "species" of Musa . Members of

2436-417: Is often called a fruit when used in making pies , but the edible produce of rhubarb is actually the leaf stalk or petiole of the plant. Edible gymnosperm seeds are often given fruit names, e.g., ginkgo nuts and pine nuts . Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn , rice , or wheat is a kind of fruit (termed a caryopsis ). However, the fruit wall is thin and fused to the seed coat, so almost all

2523-813: Is pressed for olive oil and similar processing is applied to other oil-bearing fruits and vegetables. Some fruits are available all year round, while others (such as blackberries and apricots in the UK) are subject to seasonal availability. Fruits are also used for socializing and gift-giving in the form of fruit baskets and fruit bouquets . Typically, many botanical fruits – "vegetables" in culinary parlance – (including tomato, green beans, leaf greens, bell pepper, cucumber, eggplant, okra, pumpkin, squash, zucchini) are bought and sold daily in fresh produce markets and greengroceries and carried back to kitchens, at home or restaurant, for preparation of meals. All fruits benefit from proper post-harvest care, and in many fruits,

2610-522: Is the result of parthenocarpy , where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit-set may (or may not) require pollination, but most seedless citrus fruits require a stimulus from pollination to produce fruit. Seedless bananas and grapes are triploids , and seedlessness results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy , which requires normal pollination and fertilization. Variations in fruit structures largely depend on

2697-544: Is threatening the production of the Cavendish banana worldwide. It is unclear if any existing cultivar can replace Cavendish bananas, so various hybridisation and genetic engineering programs are attempting to create a disease-resistant, mass-market banana. One such strain that has emerged is the Taiwanese Cavendish or Formosana. Export bananas are picked green, and ripened in special rooms upon arrival in

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2784-505: The pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are termed fleshy simple fruits . Types of fleshy simple fruits, (with examples) include: Berries are a type of simple fleshy fruit that issue from a single ovary. (The ovary itself may be compound, with several carpels.) The botanical term true berry includes grapes, currants, cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), tomatoes, chili peppers, and bananas, but excludes certain fruits that are called "-berry" by culinary custom or by common usage of

2871-642: The Ban , Dh , and Ze subgenomes of triploid cultivated bananas respectively. The genus Musa was created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The name may be derived from Antonius Musa , physician to the Emperor Augustus , or Linnaeus may have adapted the Arabic word for banana, mauz . The ultimate origin of musa may be in the Trans–New Guinea languages , which have words similar to "#muku"; from there

2958-921: The Caribbean . African bananas in turn were introduced from Southeast Asia into Madagascar by early Austronesian sailors. In 1888, bananas from the Canary Islands were imported into England by Thomas Fyffe . These bananas are now known to belong to the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar. Its accepted name is Musa (AAA group) 'Dwarf Cavendish'. Synonyms include: Other common names include klue hom kom , pisang serendah , Chinese banana, and Canary banana. Dwarf Cavendish leaves are broad with short petioles. Its shortness makes it stable, wind-resistant, and easier to manage. This, in addition to its fast growth rate, makes it ideal for plantation cultivation. An easily recognizable characteristic of this cultivar

3045-409: The banana heart , in a large hanging cluster called a bunch , made up of around nine tiers called hands , with up to 20 fruits to a hand. A bunch can weigh 22–65 kilograms (49–143 lb). The stalk ends of the fruits connect up to the rachis part of the inflorescence. Opposite the stalk end, is the blossom end, where the remnants of the flower deviate the texture from the rest of the flesh inside

3132-603: The modes of dispersal applied to their seeds. Dispersal is achieved by wind or water, by explosive dehiscence , and by interactions with animals. Some fruits present their outer skins or shells coated with spikes or hooked burrs; these evolved either to deter would-be foragers from feeding on them or to serve to attach themselves to the hair, feathers, legs, or clothing of animals, thereby using them as dispersal agents. These plants are termed zoochorous ; common examples include cocklebur , unicorn plant , and beggarticks (or Spanish needle) . By developments of mutual evolution,

3219-434: The raspberry are called drupelets because each pistil is like a small drupe attached to the receptacle. In some bramble fruits, such as blackberry , the receptacle, an accessory part, elongates and then develops as part of the fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit. The strawberry is also an aggregate-accessory fruit, of which the seeds are contained in the achenes . Notably in all these examples,

3306-642: The " plantain subgroup " of banana cultivars, most important as food in West Africa and Latin America, correspond to this description, having long pointed fruit. They are described by Ploetz et al. as "true" plantains, distinct from other cooking bananas. The cooking bananas of East Africa belong to a different group, the East African Highland bananas . Further, small farmers in Colombia grow

3393-412: The (deposited) pollen through the stigma down the style into the ovary to the ovule. Two sperm are transferred from the pollen to a megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte, one sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote , while the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process. Later, the zygote will give rise to the embryo of

3480-657: The 16th century. Southeast Asian banana cultivars, as well as abaca grown for fibers, were introduced to North and Central America by the Spanish from the Philippines, via the Manila galleons . In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists started banana plantations in the Atlantic Islands, Brazil, and western Africa. North Americans began consuming bananas on a small scale at very high prices shortly after

3567-664: The Americas and Europe, but it breaks down in Southeast Asia where many more kinds of bananas are grown and eaten. The term "banana" is applied also to other members of the genus Musa , such as the scarlet banana ( Musa coccinea ), the pink banana ( Musa velutina ), and the Fe'i bananas . Members of the genus Ensete , such as the snow banana ( Ensete glaucum ) and the economically important false banana ( Ensete ventricosum ) of Africa are sometimes included. Both genera are in

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3654-834: The Americas. Southeast Asian languages do not make the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" that is made in English. Thus both Cavendish dessert bananas and Saba cooking bananas are called pisang in Malaysia and Indonesia, kluai in Thailand and chuối in Vietnam. Fe'i bananas , grown and eaten in the islands of the Pacific, are derived from a different wild species. Most Fe'i bananas are cooked, but Karat bananas , which are short and squat with bright red skins, are eaten raw. The earliest domestication of bananas ( Musa spp.)

3741-501: The Caribbean produce bananas for the world market, often alongside other crops. In many tropical countries, the main cultivars produce green (unripe) bananas used for cooking . Because bananas and plantains produce fruit year-round, they provide a valuable food source during the hunger season between harvests of other crops, and are thus important for global food security . Bananas are propagated asexually from offshoots. The plant

3828-612: The Civil War, though it was only in the 1880s that the food became more widespread. As late as the Victorian Era , bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available. The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related Western Caribbean Zone , including most of Central America . Plantation cultivation involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with

3915-598: The Indian subcontinent. Some evidence suggests bananas were known to the Indus Valley civilisation from phytoliths recovered from the Kot Diji archaeological site in Pakistan. Southeast Asia remains the region of primary diversity of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation there. The banana may have been present in isolated locations elsewhere in

4002-630: The Middle East on the eve of Islam . The spread of Islam was followed by far-reaching diffusion. There are numerous references to it in Islamic texts (such as poems and hadiths ) beginning in the 9th century. By the 10th century, the banana appeared in texts from Palestine and Egypt. From there it diffused into North Africa and Muslim Iberia during the Arab Agricultural Revolution . An article on banana tree cultivation

4089-517: The Philippines, Nigeria and Ecuador. As reported for 2013, total world exports were 20 million tonnes of bananas and 859,000 tonnes of plantains. Ecuador and the Philippines were the leading exporters with 5.4 and 3.3 million tonnes, respectively, and the Dominican Republic was the leading exporter of plantains with 210,350 tonnes. Fruit In botany , a fruit is the seed -bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that

4176-408: The attachment of other floral parts – there are parts (including petals, sepals, and stamens) that fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. For such a case, when floral parts other than the ovary form a significant part of the fruit that develops, it is called an accessory fruit . Examples of accessory fruits include apple, rose hip, strawberry, and pineapple. Because several parts of the flower besides

4263-626: The banana family, Musaceae . Banana plantations are subject to damage by parasitic nematodes and insect pests, and to fungal and bacterial diseases, one of the most serious being Panama disease which is caused by a Fusarium fungus. This and black sigatoka threaten the production of Cavendish bananas , the main kind eaten in the Western world, which is a triploid Musa acuminata . Plant breeders are seeking new varieties, but these are difficult to breed given that commercial varieties are seedless. To enable future breeding, banana germplasm

4350-453: The banana, causing the banana to soften as it ripens. The vivid yellow color many consumers in temperate climates associate with bananas is caused by ripening around 18 °C (64 °F), and does not occur in Cavendish bananas ripened in tropical temperatures (over 27 °C (81 °F)), which leaves them green. Bananas are transported over long distances from the tropics to world markets. To obtain maximum shelf life, harvest comes before

4437-412: The base, so that the plant as a whole is perennial . The inflorescence contains many petal-like bracts between rows of flowers. The female flowers (which can develop into fruit) appear in rows further up the stem (closer to the leaves) from the rows of male flowers. The ovary is inferior , meaning that the tiny petals and other flower parts appear at the tip of the ovary. The banana fruits develop from

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4524-454: The botanical characteristics of Musa balbisiana , those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa acuminata , and those with characteristics of both. Researchers Norman Simmonds and Ken Shepherd proposed a genome-based nomenclature system in 1955. This system eliminated almost all the difficulties and inconsistencies of the earlier classification of bananas based on assigning scientific names to cultivated varieties. Despite this,

4611-890: The case of the sandbox tree – via explosive dehiscence or other such mechanisms (see impatiens and squirting cucumber ). A cornucopia of fruits – fleshy (simple) fruits from apples to berries to watermelon; dry (simple) fruits including beans and rice and coconuts; aggregate fruits including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pawpaw; and multiple fruits such as pineapple, fig, mulberries – are commercially valuable as human food. They are eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other fruit preserves . They are used extensively in manufactured and processed foods (cakes, cookies, baked goods, flavorings, ice cream, yogurt, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables and meals) and beverages such as fruit juices and alcoholic beverages (brandy, fruit beer , wine). Spices like vanilla, black pepper, paprika, and allspice are derived from berries. Olive fruit

4698-684: The common yellow dessert variety can be split lengthwise into three sections that correspond to the inner portions of the three carpels by manually deforming the unopened fruit. In cultivated varieties, fertile seeds are usually absent. A 2011 phylogenomic analysis using nuclear genes indicates the phylogeny of some representatives of the Musaceae family. Major edible kinds of banana are shown in boldface . Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica , Banana , S. India to Cambodia Musa ornata , Flowering banana of Southeast Asia Musa acuminata ssp. zebrina , Blood banana of Sumatra Musa mannii ,

4785-490: The decay and degradation of the fruit to expose the seeds; or it may rely upon the eating of fruit and excreting of seeds by frugivores – both are called indehiscence . Fleshy fruits do not split open, but they also are indehiscent and they may also rely on frugivores for distribution of their seeds. Typically, the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible pericarp . Types of dry simple fruits, (with examples) include: Fruits in which part or all of

4872-408: The destination country. These rooms are air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. This mimics the normal production of this gas as a ripening hormone. Ethylene stimulates the formation of amylase , an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar, influencing the taste. Ethylene signals the production of pectinase , a different enzyme which breaks down the pectin between the cells of

4959-743: The development of refrigeration that allowed more time between harvesting and ripening. North American shippers like Lorenzo Dow Baker and Andrew Preston , the founders of the Boston Fruit Company started this process in the 1870s, with the participation of railroad builders like Minor C. Keith . Development led to the multi-national giant corporations like Chiquita and Dole . These companies were monopolistic , vertically integrated (controlling growing, processing, shipping and marketing) and usually used political manipulation to build enclave economies (internally self-sufficient, virtually tax exempt, and export-oriented, contributing little to

5046-499: The early to middle of the Holocene the process was complete. From New Guinea, cultivated bananas spread westward into Island Southeast Asia . They hybridized with other (possibly independently domesticated) subspecies of Musa acuminata as well as M. balbisiana in the Philippines, northern New Guinea, and possibly Halmahera . These hybridization events produced the triploid cultivars of bananas commonly grown today. The banana

5133-401: The edible grain-fruit is actually a seed. The outer layer, often edible, of most fruits is called the pericarp . Typically formed from the ovary, it surrounds the seeds; in some species, however, other structural tissues contribute to or form the edible portion. The pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, i.e., the epicarp , mesocarp and endocarp . Fruit that bears

5220-593: The estates at Episkopi, near modern-day Limassol , including the region's banana plantations. In the early modern period , bananas were encountered by European explorers during the Magellan expedition in 1521, in both Guam and the Philippines . Lacking a name for the fruit, the ship's historian Antonio Pigafetta described them as "figs more than one palm long." Bananas were introduced to South America by Portuguese sailors who brought them from West Africa in

5307-589: The export market, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala; worldwide they cover only 8–10% of production. Mutation breeding can be used in this crop. Aneuploidy is a source of significant variation in allotriploid varieties. For one example, it can be a source of TR4 resistance . Lab protocols have been devised to screen for such aberrations and for possible resulting disease resistances. Wild Musa spp. provide useful resistance genetics, and are vital to breeding for TR4 resistance, as shown in introgressed resistance from wild relatives. Bananas form

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5394-486: The fact that "seedless" varieties do rarely produce seeds; they obtained around fifteen seeds from some 30,000 cultivated plants, pollinated by hand with pollen from wild Asian bananas. As of 2018, bananas are exported in larger volume and to a larger value than any other fruit. In 2022, world production of bananas and plantains combined was 179 million tonnes, led by India and China with a combined total of 26% of global production. Other major producers were Uganda, Indonesia,

5481-478: The family Musaceae . The APG III system assigns Musaceae to the order Zingiberales , part of the commelinid clade of the monocotyledonous flowering plants. Some 70 species of Musa were recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as of January 2013; several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals. The classification of cultivated bananas has long been

5568-477: The fleshy produce of fruits typically appeals to hungry animals, such that the seeds contained within are taken in, carried away, and later deposited (i.e., defecated ) at a distance from the parent plant. Likewise, the nutritious, oily kernels of nuts typically motivate birds and squirrels to hoard them, burying them in soil to retrieve later during the winter of scarcity; thereby, uneaten seeds are sown effectively under natural conditions to germinate and grow

5655-429: The fruit develops from a single flower, with numerous pistils. A multiple fruit is formed from a cluster of flowers, (a 'multiple' of flowers) – also called an inflorescence . Each ('smallish') flower produces a single fruitlet, which, as all develop, all merge into one mass of fruit. Examples include pineapple , fig , mulberry , Osage orange , and breadfruit . An inflorescence (a cluster) of white flowers, called

5742-414: The fruit is mature. The fruit requires careful handling, rapid transport to ports, cooling, and refrigerated shipping. The goal is to prevent the bananas from producing their natural ripening agent, ethylene. This technology allows storage and transport for 3–4 weeks at 13 °C (55 °F). On arrival, bananas are held at about 17 °C (63 °F) and treated with a low concentration of ethylene. After

5829-416: The fruits develop, but they are not evolutionarily relevant as diverse plant taxa may be in the same group. While the section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body, fungi are members of the fungi kingdom and not of the plant kingdom . Simple fruits are the result of the ripening-to-fruit of a simple or compound ovary in a single flower with a single pistil . In contrast,

5916-747: The greenhouses of Chatsworth House . The plants were botanically described by Paxton as Musa cavendishii , after the Duke. The Chatsworth bananas were shipped off to various places in the Pacific around the 1850s. It is believed that some of them may have ended up in the Canary Islands , though other authors believe that the bananas in the Canary Islands had been there since the fifteenth century and had been introduced through other means, namely by early Portuguese explorers who obtained them from West Africa and were later responsible for spreading them to

6003-419: The head of the branch or stem. Fruits may incorporate tissues derived from other floral parts besides the ovary, including the receptacle, hypanthium, petals, or sepals. Accessory fruits occur in all three classes of fruit development – simple, aggregate, and multiple. Accessory fruits are frequently designated by the hyphenated term showing both characters. For example, a pineapple is a multiple-accessory fruit,

6090-863: The host economy). Their political maneuvers, which gave rise to the term banana republic for states such as Honduras and Guatemala, included working with local elites and their rivalries to influence politics or playing the international interests of the United States, especially during the Cold War , to keep the political climate favorable to their interests. The vast majority of the world's bananas are cultivated for family consumption or for sale on local markets. They are grown in large quantities in India, while many other Asian and African countries host numerous small-scale banana growers who sell at least some of their crop. Peasants with smallholdings of 1 to 2 acres in

6177-463: The late 6th century AD. Malagasy people colonized Madagascar from South East Asia around 600 AD onwards. Glucanase and two other proteins specific to bananas were found in dental calculus from the early Iron Age (12th century BCE) Philistines in Tel Erani in the southern Levant . Another wave of introductions later spread bananas to other parts of tropical Asia, particularly Indochina and

6264-496: The latter term meaning the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries . Numerous dry achenes are attached to the outside of the fruit-flesh; they appear to be seeds but each is actually an ovary of a flower, with a seed inside. Schizocarps are dry fruits, though some appear to be fleshy. They originate from syncarpous ovaries but do not actually dehisce ; rather, they split into segments with one or more seeds. They include

6351-580: The name was borrowed into the Austronesian languages and across Asia, accompanying the cultivation of the banana as it was brought to new areas, via the Dravidian languages of India, into Arabic as a Wanderwort . The word "banana" is thought to be of West African origin, possibly from the Wolof word banaana , and passed into English via Spanish or Portuguese . Musa is the type genus in

6438-445: The number of fertilized ovules. The pericarp typically is differentiated into two or three distinct layers; these are called the exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, the sepals , petals , stamens or the style of the flower fall away as the fleshy fruit ripens. However, for simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary – i.e., one that lies below

6525-434: The original names are still recognized by some authorities, leading to confusion. The accepted scientific names for most groups of cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata Colla and Musa balbisiana Colla for the ancestral species, and Musa × paradisiaca L. for the hybrid of the two. An unusual feature of the genetics of the banana is that chloroplast DNA is inherited maternally, while mitochondrial DNA

6612-437: The ovary may contribute to the structure of a fruit, it is important to understand how a particular fruit forms. There are three general modes of fruit development: Consistent with the three modes of fruit development, plant scientists have classified fruits into three main groups: simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and multiple (or composite) fruits. The groupings reflect how the ovary and other flower organs are arranged and how

6699-410: The peel. The fruit has been described as a "leathery berry". There is a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with numerous long, thin strings ( Vascular bundles ), which run lengthwise between the skin and the edible inner white flesh. The peel is less palatable and usually discarded after peeling the fruit, optimally done from the blossom end, but often started from the stalk end. The inner part of

6786-614: The plant hormone ethylene causes ripening . Therefore, maintaining most fruits in an efficient cold chain is optimal for post-harvest storage, with the aim of extending and ensuring shelf life. Various culinary fruits provide significant amounts of fiber and water, and many are generally high in vitamin C . An overview of numerous studies showed that fruits (e.g., whole apples or whole oranges) are satisfying (filling) by simply eating and chewing them. The dietary fiber consumed in eating fruit promotes satiety , and may help to control body weight and aid reduction of blood cholesterol ,

6873-401: The purpose of fertilization. (A female gametophyte is called a megagametophyte , and also called the embryo sac .) After double fertilization, the ovules will become seeds. Ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination , which is the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma-style-ovary system within the flower-head. After pollination, a pollen tube grows from

6960-767: The region between Java , Borneo , and New Guinea ; while Pacific plantains were introduced to the Pacific Islands from either eastern New Guinea or the Bismarck Archipelago . 21st century discoveries of phytoliths in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE triggered a debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in East Africa or Madagascar around that time. The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than

7047-401: The seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm , a nutritive tissue used by the embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp , may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes ), or it may form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some multi-seeded fruits, the extent to which a fleshy structure develops is proportional to

7134-518: The sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem, the edges are forced apart. Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from ' Dwarf Cavendish ' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to ' Gros Michel ' at 7 m (23 ft) or more. Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide. When

7221-730: The store, they should not be damaged or bruised; and precut pieces should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice. All fruits and vegetables should be rinsed before eating. This recommendation also applies to produce with rinds or skins that are not eaten. It should be done just before preparing or eating to avoid premature spoilage. Fruits and vegetables should be kept separate from raw foods like meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as from utensils that have come in contact with raw foods. Fruits and vegetables that are not going to be cooked should be thrown away if they have touched raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs. All cut, peeled, or cooked fruits and vegetables should be refrigerated within two hours. After

7308-414: The term fruit also includes many structures that are not commonly called as such in everyday language, such as nuts, bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains. Many common language terms used for fruit and seeds differ from botanical classifications. For example, in botany, a fruit is a ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, e.g., an orange, pomegranate, tomato or a pumpkin. A nut

7395-417: The term – such as strawberries and raspberries. Berries may be formed from one or more carpels (i.e., from the simple or compound ovary) from the same, single flower. Seeds typically are embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary. Examples include: The strawberry, regardless of its appearance, is classified as a dry, not a fleshy fruit. Botanically, it is not a berry ; it is an aggregate-accessory fruit,

7482-520: Was from naturally occurring parthenocarpic (seedless) individuals of Musa banksii in New Guinea . These were cultivated by Papuans before the arrival of Austronesian-speakers . Numerous phytoliths of bananas have been recovered from the Kuk Swamp archaeological site and dated to around 10,000 to 6,500 BP . Foraging humans in this area began domestication in the late Pleistocene using transplantation and early cultivation methods.> By

7569-635: Was one of the key crops that enabled farming to begin in Papua New Guinea. From Island Southeast Asia, bananas became part of the staple domesticated crops of Austronesian peoples . These ancient introductions resulted in the banana subgroup now known as the true plantains , which include the East African Highland bananas and the Pacific plantains (the Iholena and Maoli-Popo'ulu subgroups). East African Highland bananas originated from banana populations introduced to Madagascar probably from

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