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The above-ground part of the plant is a "false stem" or pseudostem, consisting of leaves and their fused bases. Each pseudostem can produce a single flowering stem. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots may develop from the base of the plant. Cultivars of banana are usually sterile, without seeds or viable pollen. [4]
Each seed of M. acuminata typically produces around four times its size in edible starchy pulp (the parenchyma, the portion of the bananas eaten), around 0.23 cm 3 (230 mm 3; 0.014 cu in). [ 8 ] [ 12 ] Wild M. acuminata is diploid with 2 n =2 x =22 chromosomes , while cultivated varieties ( cultivars ) are mostly triploid (2 n =3 x =33) and ...
One medium banana contains 14 grams of natural sugar and 0 grams of added sugar. The body processes both natural and added sugar in the same way, converting them into glucose to fuel the brain ...
It is assumed that wild bananas were cooked and eaten, as farmers would not have developed the cultivated banana otherwise. Seeded Musa balbisiana fruit are called butuhan ('with seeds') in the Philippines, [7] and kluai tani (กล้วยตานี) in Thailand, [8] where its leaves are used for packaging and crafts. [9]
Banana plants are among the largest extant herbaceous plants, some reaching up to 9 m (30 ft) in height or 18 m (59 ft) in the case of Musa ingens.The large herb is composed of a modified underground stem (), a false trunk or pseudostem formed by the basal parts of tightly rolled leaves, a network of roots, and a large flower spike.
Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, [3] placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves with overlapping basal sheaths that form a pseudostem making some members appear to be woody trees.
The variety was once the dominant export banana to Europe and North America, grown in Central America but, in the 1950s, Panama disease, a wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, wiped out vast tracts of Gros Michel plantations in Central America, though it is still grown on non-infected land throughout the region.
Fe'i banana plants have many other uses. Like other kinds of banana, the leaves may be used as plates or containers for cooked food. They can also be used as a roofing material, particularly for temporary huts. The fibres of the midrib of the leaves can be used to make ropes, often used to carry bunches of bananas.