Banana
Bananas don't grow on trees. The "banana tree" is in fact a herbaceous plant which looks like a tree.
This page provides some basic information about bananas, followed by some banana photos and a few banana recipes.
Basic information on banana
| Scientific name: | Musa sp. |
| English: | Banana Plantain |
| Dutch: | Banaan Pisang |
| Spanish: | Banana Plátano |
| French: | Bananier |
| German: | Banane |
| Italian: | Banana |
| Family: | Musaceae |
| Order: | Zingiberales |
| Varieties, cultivars: | The genus Musa includes several species and cultivars of bananas. The most popular dessert banana is a cultivar called "Cavendish". Fruits of most banana cultivars are yellow when ripe, but some produce fruits with a red or purple color. There is a big variety n fruit texture and sweetness. Ripe fruits are eaten raw or cooked. Unripe bananas or plantains have a green color and are used in cooking. |
| Origin: | Tropical South-East Asia |
| Distribution: | Bananas are grown in almost all tropical regions |
| Evergreen or deciduous: | Evergreen |
| Leaves: | Bananas have big, oblong or elliptic leaves with fleshy stalks. Most plants have between 5 and 15 leaves, which are arranged in a spiral. leaves can be up to 3 meter long and 60 cm wide. Older leaves often get damaged and have a ragged appearance. Usually leaves are entirely green, but sometimes green with maroon spots, and sometimes they underside of the leaf may be red purple in color. |
| Stem: | Bananas are herbaceous plants and have a pseudostem. Because of this pseudostem, which can reach 2-8 meter, they are sometimes mistaken for trees. The pseudostem is a cylinder of leaf-petiole sheaths. |
| Climate and weather: | Bananas grow in tropical and near tropical regions. |
| Height: | Depending on the variety bananas can be up to 8 meter tall. |
| Blooming period | All year round |
| Type of soil: | Prefers deep, well-drained soil. Bananas can grow and produce fruits under very poor conditions. |
| Moisture: | Does not like water logging. |
| Growth rate: | Fast |
| Spacing (close range) | 2 meter |
| Spacing (wide range) | 3.5 meter |
| Propagation: | Banana plants have suckers that spring up around the main plant forming a clump or "stool'. When the main plant fruits and dies, it will be replaced by the the eldest sucker. This process of succession can continue forever. The suckers are used for propagation. Suckers are usually transplanted just before they produce wide leaves that resemble those of the mature plant but smaller. Banana seeds are only used for propagation in breeding programs. |
| Insect pests: | Black weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus (= banana stalk borer, banana weevil borer), Thrips, Spider mites |
| Diseases: | Panama disease (fusarium wilt) is a soil fungus. Black Sigatoka (=Black Leaf Streek) is a fungal leaf spot disease. Banana Bunchy Top Virus is an aphid borne virus disease. |
| Other pests: | Various types of nematodes |
| Harvesting: | Banana bunches are harvested with a curved knife when the fruits are fully developed (75% mature). They then ripen naturally. |
| Uses: | Bananas are usually grown for the fruits, sometimes for the production of fibers, and sometimes they are grown as ornamental plants. In some countries the flower of the banana plant (also known as banana blossom or banana heart) is used as food. It can be eaten raw or it is cooked as an ingredient in soups and curries. |
Banana photos
Proverbs about banana
- An old banana leaf was once young and green.
- Dogs don't like bananas, but can't bear to think chickens eat them.
- Don't ever try to cut the banana tree when a house is in flames
- Even without drumbeats, banana leaves dance.
- Every fresh banana leaf should eventually become a dry banana leaf.
- Little by little grow the bananas.
- Lower your head modestly while passing and you will harvest bananas.
- Man is like a banana: when he leaves the bunch, he gets skinned.
- No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree.
- Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
- When a monkey doesn't get a banana, he eats chilies.
- When the monkey can't reach the ripe banana, he says it is not sweet.
Who knows more proverbs or quotes about bananas? Please send me a message.
Quotes about banana
- Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. (Groucho Marx)
- Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana. (Bill Gates)
Did you know that?
- A "banana republic" is a small country that is politically unstable and whose economy is dominated by foreign companies and depends on one export product (such as bananas).
- Bananas are the world's best-selling fruit (next are apples and oranges).
Banana recipes
Fruit salad with banana
Ingredients:
200 ml orange juice, 1 cup seedless grapes, 1 orange (peeled and cut
in cubes), 1 banana (peeled and sliced), 1 peach or nectarine (pitted
and cut in cubes).
Instructions:
Mix the fruits. Pour the juice over the fruit. Serve cold (refrigerated).
Fried banana
Ingredients:
Bananas (not too ripe), rice flower, salt, sugar, baking powder,dried coconut,
white sesame, soda water, oil for frying
Instructions:
Mix well the rice flower, salt, sugar, baking powder and dried coconut together.
Slowly add soda water and stir the mixture at the same time. Continue stirring
and then add the white sesame. Slice the bananas. Heat the oil in the pan.
Put banana in the mixture then use the spoon to take the banana
covered with the mixture and fry it in the oil. Remove fried banana when it turns yellow.
Keep it for a moment in a sieve. Expose the fried banana to air: it will turn to be crispy.
Serve it while it is warm.
Remark: Do not cover the fried banana because then it becomes soft.
Syrup banana
Ingredients:
Bananas (1 cluster, about 17 fruits), 500 gram sugar, 1.5 liter water,
1 teaspoon salt, limewater, coconut milk head or put the can of coconut milk in fridge and scrape the thick part floating on top.
Instructions:
Peel the bananas. Divide each into 4 pieces then keep them in lime water for 15 minutes (or just
in clean in water if you don’t have lime water). Boil 1.5 liters of water
with sugar and salt then add the banana. Stir the mixture and close the lid.
When it gets to boil, slow down the fire and half open the lid. Leave it to boil (simmer
on a slow fire), never stir it nor add water, until it become a syrup; it takes about 3 hours.
Prepare the topping by mixing the coconut milk head with a little bit of salt.
Serve while it is warm, topping it with the coconut milk.
Remark: Some kind of bananas turn to be red color, others turn to be yellow color.
Do not use the ripe banana, because after cooking it will turn to be sloppy.