Banana
Musa × paradisiaca L.
Banana (Musa × paradisiaca) is really a giant herb, not a woody tree; it is grown throughout the tropics for its fruit — among the world's most important staple fruits — as well as for the male flower, leaves and stem.
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Banana — PlantBanana — Whole tree
Banana — Fruit & seeds
Banana — Flowers
Banana — Leaves
Banana — Trunk & barkBanana — PlantBanana — Whole treeOverview
A plant 2–8 m tall whose “trunk” is a pseudostem of overlapping leaf sheaths. Leaves are very large and paddle-shaped with a prominent midrib. The inflorescence hangs down, female flowers below developing into hands of fruit, the tip being the male bud; fruits are curved, ripening yellow with soft sweet flesh.
Cultivated bananas are nearly seedless and are propagated by suckers from the underground corm. Ripe fruit is eaten fresh, fried or dried; the male bud goes into salads; leaves wrap food; the stem feeds livestock.
Life cycle
From seed to productSucker
Young plants grow from the underground corm; suckers are separated to plant and fruit in 9–12 months.
Young plant
Young plants quickly build a tall pseudostem and many large leaves.
Shooting
The inflorescence hangs down with the male bud at the tip; lower female flowers form the hands.
Bunching
The bunch swells and fruits curve; harvested 10–15 weeks after shooting, after which the mother plant dies and a sucker takes over.
Distribution & origin
Share of recorded occurrences by region- India · South Asia28%
- Southeast Asia24%
- Vietnam12%
- China · East Asia10%
- Africa · Latin America26%
Chemical composition
Relative content in agarwood resin- Starch (unripe fruit)Turns to sugar as it ripens34%
- PotassiumMain mineral22%
- Vitamin B6 · CEnergy, immunity20%
- Fibre · dopamine (peel)Digestion, antioxidant24%
Uses
- Ripe fruit fresh, fried, dried, in baking
- Male bud in salads; leaves for wrapping food
- Stem for fodder, compost and craft fibre
Properties
- “Trunk”
- Pseudostem of leaf sheaths
- Leaf
- Very large, paddle-shaped
- Fruit
- Curved, in hands, nearly seedless
Habitat & conservation
Native to Southeast and South Asia; likes a hot, humid climate with even rainfall and deep, humus-rich, well-drained soil, grown from lowlands to low hillsides.
Conservation
The cultivated banana is a common crop and is not separately assessed by IUCN; some wild Musa species are threatened, but the edible banana is secure through widespread farming.
References
- 1Plants of the World Online — Musa × paradisiaca — Kew Science, 2024
- 2Bananas and Plantains — CABI, 2010
- 3FAO — Banana market review — FAO, 2023
- 4Hình ảnh minh hoạ lấy từ Wikimedia Commons, tôn trọng giấy phép ghi kèm — Wikimedia Commons,
- 5Nguồn ảnh: Manfred Werner - Tsui (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,
- 6Nguồn ảnh: Emőke Dénes (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,
- 7Nguồn ảnh: Izziekins (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,
- 8Nguồn ảnh: Mokkie (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,
- 9Nguồn ảnh: Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada (CC BY 2.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,
- 10Nguồn ảnh: Dinesh Valke from Thane, India (CC BY-SA 2.0), Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia Commons,