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A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry [1] – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with ...
Commercial banana production in the United States is relatively limited in scale and economic impact. While Americans eat 26 pounds (12 kg) of bananas per person per year, the vast majority of the fruit is imported from other countries, chiefly Central and South America, where the US has previously occupied areas containing banana plantations, and controlled the importation of bananas via ...
Although bananas have been planted for thousands of years, the development of an intercontinental trade in bananas had to wait for the convergence of three things: modern rapid shipping (steamships), refrigeration, and railroads. These three factors converged in the Caribbean in the 1870s, and would lead to the development of large-scale banana ...
Banana plantations, as well as growing the fruit, may also package, process, and ship their product directly from the plantation to worldwide markets.Depending on the scope of the operation, a plantation's size may vary from a small family farm operation to a corporate facility encompassing large tracts of land, multiple physical plants, and many employees.
There's some hope yet. The bananas you enjoy in the morning, with your cereal, smoothies, with a scoop of peanut butter, in your banana bread, or just on their own, are facing extinction due to a ...
Left to right: plantains, Red, Latundan, and Cavendish bananas. The following is a list of banana cultivars and the groups into which they are classified. Almost all modern cultivated varieties (cultivars) of edible bananas and plantains are hybrids and polyploids of two wild, seeded banana species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana.
Musa nana Lour. Musa × sapientum var. suaveolens (Blanco) Malag. Musa acuminata is a species of banana native to Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are from this species, although some are hybrids with Musa balbisiana. [5]
Cooking bananas are a major food staple in West and Central Africa, the Caribbean islands, Central America, and northern South America. [6] Members of the genus Musa are indigenous to the tropical regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania. [7] Bananas fruit all year round, making them a reliable all-season staple food. [8]