A Banana Fruit hanging from a plantain
Banana is the common name for a fruit and also the herbaceous plants of the genus Musa which produce this commonly eaten fruit They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia Bananas are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea Today they are cultivated throughout the tropics Banana plants are of the family Musaceae They are cultivated primarily for their fruit and to a lesser extent for the production of fibre and as ornamental plants As the banana plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy they are often mistaken for trees but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem literally fake stem For some species this pseudostem can reach a height of up to 2 8 m with leaves of up to 3 5 m in length Each pseudostem can produce a bunch of yellow green or even red bananas before dying and being replaced by another pseudostem The banana fruit grow in hanging clusters with up to 20 fruit to a tier called a hand and 3 20 tiers to a bunch The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch or commercially as a banana stem and can weigh from 30 50 kg The fruit averages 125 g of which approximately 75 is water and 25 dry matter content Each individual fruit known as a banana or finger has a protective outer layer a peel or skin with a fleshy edible inner portion Both skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked Western cultures generally eat the inside raw and throw away the skin while some Asian cultures generally eat both the skin and inside cooked Typically the fruit has numerous strings called phloem bundles which run between the skin and inner part Bananas are a valuable source of vitamin B6 vitamin C and potassium Bananas are grown in at least 107 countries In popular culture and commerce banana usually refers to soft sweet dessert bananas The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer starchier fruit are called plantains Bananas may also be cut and dried and eaten as a
Size: 5200px × 3467px
Location: Thiruvananthapuram India Kerala
Photo credit: © Stock Experiment / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: asia, asian, banana, bananas, bunch, bundle, cultivate, eatable, fruit, green, hanging, india, indian, kerala, musa, musaceae, native, ornamental, pazham, plantain, pseudostem, tropical, unripe
