Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Musa × paradisiaca is a species as well as a cultivar, originating as the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, cultivated and domesticated by human very early.. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are polyploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alo
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 ]
[1] [2] These taxa differentiate from the "ginger-families" derived clade by their plesiomorphic state of five or six fertile stamens, [1] [2] [5] and generally have large banana-like [1] [2] leaves that are easily torn [5] between secondary veins. Morphologically, this is a more homogeneous group than the "ginger-families" clade. [2]
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 ().
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 .
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.
Articles on the species and botany of the genus to which they belong are placed in the Category:Musa (genus). Articles on cultivars and groups of cultivars are placed in the subcategory Category:Banana cultivars.