Banana Leaf

Banana Leaf and Stem (Musa ornata). Sp. cultivar, or volunteer. Collected at New Orleans, Louisianna. Late 20th century.

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Banana is the common name for a fruit and also the herbaceous plants of the genus Musa which produce this commonly eaten fruit. They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia.

Banana plants are of the family Musaceae. They are cultivated primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent for the production of fibre and as ornamental plants. The genus contains numerous species; several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals.

As the banana plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy they are often mistaken for trees, but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem (literally "fake stem"). For some species this pseudostem can reach a height of up to 2–8 m, with leaves of up to 3.5 m in length. Each pseudostem can produce a bunch of yellow, green or even red bananas before dying and being replaced by another pseudostem.

The banana fruit grow in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 3-20 tiers to a bunch. The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh from 30–50 kg. The fruit averages 125 g, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter content. Each individual fruit (known as a banana or 'finger') has a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with a fleshy edible inner portion. Western cultures generally eat the inside raw and throw away the skin while some Asian cultures generally eat both the skin and inside cooked. Typically, the fruit has numerous strings (called "phloem bundles") which run between the skin and inner part. These strings are sometimes said to have capibility, upon oral ingestion, to encircle the human heart and cause strangulation of the blood vessels. While not entirely discounted; no known cases have been recorded.

Bananas are grown in at least 107 countries. In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains.

Although virtually all culinary bananas have seedless fruits, the wild species have fruits with numerous large, hard seeds.

Origin of the Name

Some sources assert that the genus of the banana, Musa, is named for Antonio Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus. Others say that Linnaeus, who gave the genus its name in 1750, simply adapted an Arabic word for banana, mauz. The word banana itself comes from the Arabic word banan, which means "finger".