Herb. No. 216 · Musaceae
Southeast Asian origin; a plantation clone of the tropics, and a grocery staple everywhere.
Native · Southeast Asia · South Asia
Native Also grownNow a garden plant worldwide
LegalGentleplant
Banana
Musa acuminata
The tropical berry we treat as a fruit — a seedless clone that travels green and ripens in the bowl.
Dessert banana is a seedless Musa clone (Cavendish, mostly). Traditional tropical use is as ripe fruit and, for plantain, as a cooked starch. Culinary amounts are the path. Wild bananas are full of seeds. The grocery fruit is picked green on purpose. A black-spotted banana is jam and bread, not a failure.
Flavor
Custard, a little tropical flower. Green is starch; spotted is sugar.
Parts used
Ripe fruit
Helpful
- A bowl fruit that ripens after travel
- Cheap calories
Cautions
- A clone with a disease problem (Panama wilt)
- Not a temperate crop without a greenhouse
- Green in quantity binds some people