Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Musa acuminata - Banana
Edible Portion: Fruit, Flowers, Flower stalk, Stem
The banana false stems usually have black marks on them. The canal of the leaf stalk is like an open drain. There are dry flaps where the leaf stalk joins the false stem. The leaves are paddle shaped. These are diploid bananas. They can be seeded or seedless. The flowers hang down. They are pear shaped and yellow, white or cream. The fruit are yellow. This is the small diploid variety. Many bananas are hybrids between acuminata and balbisiana. See Musa x paradisiaca.