www.growables.org/information/Tr...ruit/banana.htm
Growables
Edible bananas originated in the Indo-Malaysian region reaching to northern Australia. They were known only by hearsay in the Mediterranean region in the 3rd Century B.C., and are believed to have been first carried to Europe in the 10th Century A.D. Early in the 16th Century, Portuguese mariners transported the plant from the West African coast to South America. The types found in cultivation in the Pacific have been traced to eastern Indonesia from where they spread to the Marquesas and by stages to Hawaii. 3
Description
Bananas are vigorously growing, monocotyledonous herbaceous plants. There are two species of banana, Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana, and most banana cultivars are hybrids of these species. Banana cultivars vary greatly in plant and fruit size, plant morphology, fruit quality, and disease and insect resistance. Most bananas have a sweet flavor when ripe; exceptions to this are cooking bananas and plantains. 1
Plantains are hybrid bananas in which the male flowering axis is either degenerated, lacking, or possesses only relicts of male flowers. Plantains are always cooked before consumption and are higher in starch than bananas. The two groups of plantains, French and Horn, produce fewer fruit per plant than sweet bananas. The groups differ in whether the male parts of the inflorescence are persistent or absent. 1
The banana is a fast-growing plant consisting of one or more pseudostems (upright, trunk-like structures) formed by tightly packed concentric layers of leaf sheaths, an underground rhizome, and a fibrous root system. The entire plant is called a mat. The pseudostem constitutes the functional trunk which supports the leaves and the flower and fruit bearing stalk. 1