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92-508: When young its aromas have been likened to banana and pencil shavings. Strong tones of violet and leather develop as it matures. Petit Verdot probably predates Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux, but its origins are unclear. There are records of it in the eighteenth century, but its characteristics suggest an origin in much hotter climes than the Gironde . It is likely that it originates from

184-416: A stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary . Berries so defined include grapes , currants , and tomatoes , as well as cucumbers , eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas , but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries , such as strawberries and raspberries . The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of

276-423: 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

368-406: A berry is a simple fruit having seeds and fleshy pulp (the pericarp ) produced from the ovary of a single flower. The ovary can be inferior or superior . It is indehiscent , i.e. it does not have a special "line of weakness" along which it splits to release the seeds when ripe. The pericarp is divided into three layers. The outer layer is called the "exocarp" or " epicarp "; the middle layer,

460-477: 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

552-433: A food source to humans since before the start of agriculture, and remain among the primary food sources of other primates. Botanically defined berries with culinary uses include: Some berries are brightly coloured, due to plant pigments such as anthocyanins and other flavonoids . These pigments are localized mainly in the outer surface and the seeds . Such pigments have antioxidant properties in vitro , but there

644-548: A hard outer rind, have also been used as containers by removing the inner flesh and seeds and then drying the remaining exocarp. The English name of Lagenaria siceraria , "bottle gourd", reflects its use as a liquid container. Some true berries have also been used as a source of dyes . In Hawaii , these included berries from a species of Dianella , used to produce blue, and berries from black nightshade ( Solanum americanum ), used to produce green. Cucurbit berries or pepos, particularly from Cucurbita and Lagenaria , are

736-476: A hard, persistent endocarp, even woody in some species. Fruits classified as berries are thus not necessarily homologous, with the fleshy part being derived from different parts of the ovary, and with other structural and developmental differences. The presence or absence of berries is not a reliable guide to phylogeny. Indeed, fruit type in general has proved to be an unreliable guide to flowering plant relationships. Berries, defined loosely, have been valuable as

828-461: 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

920-498: 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

1012-550: 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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1104-461: 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

1196-470: 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

1288-444: A structure (the core) in which tough tissue clearly separates the seeds from the outer softer pericarp. Although pomes are not botanical berries, Amelanchier pomes become soft at maturity, resembling a blueberry , and are commonly called Juneberries, serviceberries or Saskatoon berries . Aggregate or compound fruits contain seeds from different ovaries of a single flower, with the individual "fruitlets" joined at maturity to form

1380-458: A superior ovary. In epigynous berries, the berry includes tissue derived from parts of the flower other than the ovary. The floral tube, formed from the basal part of the sepals, petals and stamens, can become fleshy at maturity and is united with the ovary to form the fruit. Common fruits that are sometimes classified as epigynous berries include bananas , coffee , members of the genus Vaccinium (e.g., cranberries and blueberries), and members of

1472-406: A thin outer skin, not self-supporting when removed from the berry. This distinguishes, for example, a Vaccinium or Solanum berry from an Adansonia (baobab) amphisarca, which has a dry, more rigid and self-supporting skin. The fruit of citrus , such as the orange , kumquat and lemon , is a berry with a thick rind and a very juicy interior divided into segments by septa , that is given

1564-466: A two-volume work, De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum (on the fruits and seeds of plants) between 1788 and 1792. In addition to Linnaeus' eight terms, he introduced seven more, including pepo for the berry-like fruits of cucurbits. A pepo was distinguished by being a fleshy berry with the seeds distant from the axis, and so nearer the fruit wall (i.e. by having " parietal placentation " in modern terminology). Nicaise Auguste Desvaux in 1813 used

1656-494: 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

1748-415: A wide variety of soils, as long as it 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

1840-752: 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

1932-552: Is a berry-like example of a multiple fruit; it develops from a cluster of tiny separate flowers that become compressed as they develop into fruit. Accessory fruits are not botanical berries. In accessory fruits, the edible part is not generated by the ovary. Berry-like examples include: The female seed cones of some conifers have fleshy and merged scales, giving them a berry-like appearance. Juniper "berries" (family Cupressaceae ), in particular those of Juniperus communis , are used to flavour gin . The seed cones of species in

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2024-567: Is all that supports the plant. The edges of 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

2116-410: 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

2208-421: 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 a peel , which may have

2300-429: 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

2392-399: 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

2484-706: 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

2576-415: 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

2668-590: Is less effective. Such habitats were increasingly common in the Paleogene and the associated change in fruit type may have led to the evolution of fruit eating in mammals and birds. Fruit type has been considered to be a useful character in classification and in understanding the phylogeny of plants. The evolution of fruits with a berry-like pericarp has been studied in a wide range of flowering plant families. Repeated transitions between fleshy and dry pericarps have been demonstrated regularly. One well-studied family

2760-620: Is no reliable evidence that they have antioxidant or any other useful functions within the human body. Consequently, it is not permitted to claim that foods containing plant pigments have antioxidant health value on product labels in the United States or Europe. Some spices are prepared from berries. Allspice is made from the dried berries of Pimenta dioica . The fruits (berries) of different cultivars of Capsicum annuum are used to make paprika (mildly hot), chili pepper (hot) and cayenne pepper (very hot). Pepos, characterized by

2852-435: Is rarely used. There remains no universally agreed system of classification for fruits, and there continues to be "confusion over classification of fruit types and the definitions given to fruit terms". By definition, berries have a fleshy, indehiscent pericarp, as opposed to a dry, dehiscent pericarp. Fossils show that early flowering plants had dry fruits; fleshy fruits, such as berries or drupes, appeared only towards

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2944-780: Is sometime cultivated in Alentejo with great results due to this region's specific climatic conditions. The profusion of Meritage Bordeaux blends has seen considerable interest in the variety in California, where there was 360 ha in 2003. The more consistent, warmer climate is a big help in reliably ripening the grape, and producers are starting to experiment with single varietals. It is also planted in Arizona , Colorado , Oregon , Texas , Michigan , Virginia , Ohio , Maryland , Missouri , North Carolina , New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, New Mexico, and Washington . In addition to

3036-550: Is sometimes cultivated in Maremma ( Tuscany ) and Lazio . In Lebanon , it is sometime found in Bekaa Valley, and be added to cabernet sauvignon and merlot. In Peru , Petit Verdot vines are grown in the southern Ica Region . The desert weather from Ica allows producers to make 100% varietal Petit Verdot wines. Tacama winery produces one of its high end wines, "Don Manuel", with 100% Petit Verdot grapes. In Portugal it

3128-551: Is the Solanaceae , because of the commercial importance of fruit such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants or aubergines. Capsules , which are dry dehiscent fruits, appear to be the original form of the fruit in the earliest diverging members of the family. Berries have then evolved at least three times: in Cestrum , Duboisia , and in the subfamily Solanoideae . Detailed anatomical and developmental studies have shown that

3220-547: 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

3312-534: Is used of fruits that have the general structure and texture of a drupe, without necessarily meeting the full definition. Other drupe-like fruits with a single seed that lack the stony endocarp include sea-buckthorn ( Hippophae rhamnoides , Elaeagnaceae ), which is an achene , surrounded by a swollen hypanthium that provides the fleshy layer. Fruits of Coffea species are described as either drupes or berries. The pome fruits produced by plants in subtribe Pyrinae of family Rosaceae , such as apples and pears, have

3404-645: 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

3496-668: The Pyrénées-Atlantiques where it was possibly domesticated from wild grapevines. It is one parent of Tressot , the other parent being Duras , a grape from the upper Tarn valley near Toulouse. It's possible that both were brought to the region by the Romans as they moved inland from the Mediterranean. There are some blocks of Petit Verdot in Argentina , although for many years it was labelled as Fer . Verdot

3588-617: The Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 7,000 BP, and possibly to 10,000 BP. The history of cultivated citrus fruit remains unclear, although some recent research suggests a possible origin in Papuasia rather than continental southeast Asia. Chinese documents show that mandarins and pomelos were established in cultivation there by around 4,200 BP. According to FAOSTAT data, in 2013 four of

3680-410: 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

3772-417: The fruits of the potato and the deadly nightshade , are poisonous to humans. A plant that bears berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate (from Latin bacca ). In everyday English, a " berry " is any small edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, round, brightly coloured, sweet or sour , and do not have a stone or pit, although many small seeds may be present. In botanical language,

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3864-423: The " mesocarp " or "sarcocarp"; the inner layer, the " endocarp ". Botanists have not applied these terms consistently. Exocarp and endocarp may be restricted to more-or-less single-layered "skins", or may include tissues adjacent to them; thus on one view, the exocarp extends inwards to the layer of vascular bundles ("veins"). The inconsistency in usage has been described as "a source of confusion". The nature of

3956-644: 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

4048-660: 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

4140-664: 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

4232-837: 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.)

4324-503: 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

4416-667: 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

4508-654: 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

4600-632: 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

4692-486: 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. Berry (botany) In botany , a berry is a fleshy fruit without

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4784-618: The aging potential. Chile had 137 ha in 2003. Almost all the Petit Verdot in France is planted in Bordeaux, mostly in the Médoc where it is used in small amounts to give structure to the classic Bordeaux blend. However the late ripening means that in some years the entire crop is lost and it only properly ripens once every four years, so it has fallen out of favour, particularly with the trend towards earlier-maturing wine. In Italy , it

4876-626: 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

4968-458: 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

5060-414: 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

5152-408: The berries fail to develop properly without the right weather during flowering. It also refers to the late ripening which usually comes too late for the Bordeaux climate. Petit Verdot also has a peculiar characteristic in that it produces more than two clusters per shoot. Bouton, Carmelin, Heran, Lambrusquet Noir, Petit Verdau, Petit Verdot Noir, Verdot and Verdot Rouge. Banana A banana

5244-546: The berries of Cestrum and those of the Solanoideae are significantly different; for example, expansion of the fruit during development involves cell divisions in the mesocarp in Solanoideae berries, but not in Cestrum berries. When fruits described as berries were studied in the family Melastomaceae , they were found to be highly variable in structure, some being soft with an endocarp that soon broke down, others having

5336-455: 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,

5428-689: 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 ,

5520-500: The complete fruit. Examples of aggregate fruits commonly called "berries" include members of the genus Rubus , such as blackberry and raspberry . Botanically, these are not berries. Other large aggregate fruits, such as soursop ( Annona muricata ), are not usually called "berries", although some sources do use this term. Multiple fruits are not botanical berries. Multiple fruits are the fruits of two or more multiple flowers that are merged or packed closely together. The mulberry

5612-531: The countries above, Petit Verdot is used as 'seasoning' in Bordeaux-style blends in British Columbia , New Zealand , South Africa and Spain . The leaves have three to five lobes with a distinctively elongated central lobe. The small, cylindrical bunches are winged, with small black berries. The name Petit Verdot ('small green') refers to one of the main problems with the grape, that often

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5704-410: 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

5796-744: 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

5888-705: The earliest plants known to be domesticated – before 9,000–10,000 BP in the Americas, and probably by 12,000–13,000 BP in Asia. Peppers were domesticated in Mesoamerica by 8,000 BP. Many other early cultivated plants were also berries by the strict botanical definition, including grapes, domesticated by 8,000 BP and known to have been used in wine production by 6,000 BP. Bananas were first domesticated in Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia . Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence at Kuk Swamp in

5980-501: 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

6072-569: The end of the Cretaceous Period or the beginning of the Paleogene Period , about 66 million years ago . The increasing importance of seed dispersal by fruit-eating vertebrates, both mammals and birds, may have driven the evolution of fleshy fruits. Alternatively, the causal direction may be the other way round. Large fleshy fruits are associated with moist habitats with closed tree canopies, where wind dispersal of dry fruits

6164-412: The endocarp distinguishes a berry from a drupe , which has a hardened or stony endocarp (see also below). The two kinds of fruit intergrade, depending on the state of the endocarp. Some sources have attempted to quantify the difference, e.g. requiring the endocarp to be less than 2 mm thick in a berry. Examples of botanical berries include: "True berries", or "baccae", may also be required to have

6256-597: 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

6348-592: 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

6440-489: 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,

6532-554: The families Podocarpaceae and Taxaceae have a bright colour when fully developed, increasing the resemblance to true berries. The "berries" of yews ( Taxus species) consist of a female seed cone with which develops a fleshy red aril partially enclosing the poisonous seed. The Latin word baca or bacca (plural baccae ) was originally used for "any small round fruit". Andrea Caesalpinus (1519–1603) classified plants into trees and herbs, further dividing them by properties of their flowers and fruit. He did not make

6624-481: 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

6716-410: The family Cucurbitaceae (gourds, cucumbers , melons and squash ). Many fruits which are berries in the culinary definition are not berries in the botanic sense, but fall into one of the following categories: Drupes are varyingly distinguished from botanical berries. Drupes are fleshy fruits produced from a (usually) single-seeded ovary with a hard woody layer (called the endocarp ) surrounding

6808-441: The first textbook of descriptive systematic botany. He used eight different terms for fruits, one of which was bacca or berry, distinguished from other types of fruit such as drupa (drupe) and pomum (pome). A bacca was defined as " pericarpium farctum evalve, semina ceteroquin nuda continens ", meaning "unvalved solid pericarp, containing otherwise naked seeds". The adjective " farctus " here has

6900-413: The five top fruit crops in terms of world production by weight were botanical berries. The other was a pome (apples). Citrus fruit includes, but is not limited to, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit (including pomelos), tangerines, mandarins, clementines and satsumas. Oranges make up 53% of the total. According to FAOSTAT, in 2001, bananas (including plantains) and citrus comprised over 25% by value of

6992-414: 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

7084-802: 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

7176-466: 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

7268-427: The modern distinction between "fruits" and "seeds", calling hard structures like nuts semina or seeds. A fleshy fruit was called a pericarpium . For Caesalpinus, a true bacca or berry was a pericarpium derived from a flower with a superior ovary; one derived from a flower with an inferior ovary was called a pomum . In 1751, Carl Linnaeus wrote Philosophia Botanica , considered to be

7360-582: 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

7452-437: 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

7544-408: The ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible " pericarp ". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as Capsicum species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds. Many berries are edible, but others, such as

7636-411: 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

7728-770: 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

7820-444: The seed. Familiar examples include the stonefruits of the genus Prunus ( peaches , plums and cherries ), olives , coconut , dates , bayberry and Persea species. Some definitions make the mere presence of an internally differentiated endocarp the defining feature of a drupe; others qualify the nature of the endocarp required in a drupe, e.g. defining berries to have endocarp less than 2 mm thick. The term "drupaceous"

7912-505: The sense of "solid with tissue softer than the outside; stuffed". A berry or bacca was distinguished from a drupe and a pome, both of which also had an unvalved solid pericarp; a drupe also contained a nut ( nux ) and a pome a capsule ( capsula ), rather than the berry's naked seeds. Linnaeus' use of bacca and pomum was thus significantly different from that of Caesalpinus. Botanists continue to differ on how fruit should be classified. Joseph Gaertner published

8004-473: The special name " hesperidium ". A specialized term, pepo , is also used for fruits of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae , which are modified to have a hard outer rind, but are not internally divided by septa. The fruits of Passiflora ( passion fruit ) and Carica (papaya) are sometimes also considered pepos. Berries that develop from an inferior ovary are sometimes termed epigynous berries or false berries, as opposed to true berries, which develop from

8096-419: The terms hesperidium and amphisarca as further subdivisions of berries. A hesperidium, called by others bacca corticata (berry with a cortex), had separate internal compartments ( " loges " in the original French) and a separable membraneous epicarp or skin. An amphisarca was described as woody on the outside and fleshy on the inside. "Hesperidium" remains in general use, but "amphisarca"

8188-511: The world's exported fruits and vegetables, citrus fruits being more valuable than bananas. Export quantities of fruit are not entirely comparable with production quantities, since slightly different categories are used. The top five fruit exports by weight in 2012 are shown in the table below. The top two places are again occupied by bananas and citrus. Citrus fruit includes oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit (including pomelos), tangerines, mandarins, clementines and satsumas. Oranges make up 43% of

8280-524: 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

8372-719: Was included in James Busby's collection of 1832, and it was trialled by Sir William Macarthur in the 1840s. In 2000 there were 1600 hectares in Australia with Kingston Estate in South Australia having the largest planting, four times more than in France . It is increasingly being used to make massive, brooding, single varietal wines that will age for several years – Pirramimma has championed this approach and Warrumbungle Wines releases only aged / cellar vintages to highlight

8464-692: 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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