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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.
Of California's total plant population, 2,153 species, subspecies, and varieties are endemic and native to California alone, according to the 1993 Jepson Manual study. [4] This botanical diversity stems not only from the size of the state, but also its diverse topographies , climates, and soils (e.g. serpentine outcrops ).
The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. [2] All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure called a corm. [3] Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy with a treelike appearance, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a pseudostem composed of multiple leaf-stalks .
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]
Most banana cultivars which exhibit purely or mostly Musa acuminata genomes are dessert bananas, while hybrids of M. acuminata and M. balbisiana are mostly cooking bananas or plantains. [23] Musa acuminata is one of the earliest plants to be domesticated by humans for agriculture, 7,000 years ago in New Guinea and Wallacea. [24]
Strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the wild banana or giant white bird of paradise, is a species of banana-like plants with erect woody stems reaching a height of 7–8 m (23–26 ft), and the clumps formed can spread as far as 3.5 m (11 ft).
The same term is also used to describe the plants on which the bananas grow. They include commercially important cultivars like ' Dwarf Cavendish ' (1888) and ' Grand Nain ' (the " Chiquita banana"). Since the 1950s, these cultivars have been the most internationally traded bananas. [ 1 ]
The plant species Musa ingens, also known as the giant highland banana or Oem, [2] is the physically largest member of the family Musaceae and the only member of the section Ingentimusa. Growing in the tropical montane forests of New Guinea - Arfak Mountains Regency in Indonesia , its leaves can reach a length of 5 meters (16 feet) and a width ...