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Family: Musaceae
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Bocas Species Database Habitat: Bananas need a tropical climate conditions. Temperature seems to be the major growth limiting factor and the optimum temperature is about 27 °C, with tolerance levels varying between banana varieties. It needs an average annual rainfall of 2000 to 2500 mm, more or less evenly distributed. Also, bananas are usually cultivated in humid tropical lowlands. Distribution: Bananas are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. Evidences demonstrated that this tree was first domesticated in Papua New Guinea, but they are now cultivated throughout the tropics. The top leaders exporting countries of bananas are Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras. Panama occupies the 6th position. Natural History Notes: Bananas and plantains belong to the genus Musa. It was Linnaeus that first gave the scientific name Musa sapientum for all sweet bananas, and the scientific name Musa paradisiaca for plantains. However, Linnaeus did not know that the two species he had described were in fact hybrids and not two distinct species. Therefore, those two names could not be relevant in modern taxonomy. Genetic studies have then demonstrated that all edible bananas and plantains come from a common ancestor, Musa acuminata. Plantains also carry genes from another ancestor, Musa balbisiana. The genome of each ancestor could be represented respectively by the letter A and B. Then, further studies showed that edible bananas are mostly triploids and their genome would be described as AAA. This means that they carry three sets of chromosomes derived from M. acuminata. Different hybrid combinations have been observed, such as AAB, BBB, and tetraploid groups (AAAA) were also described. Therefore, an accurate classification for bananas seems to be a great challenge. However, one thing sure in that banana taxonomists seem to agree that there is no single scientific name that can be attributed to all edible bananas. Therefore, a new type of classification was proposed by Simmonds and that would abandon the Latin name to use instead a group indication like this: genus (Musa) + genome group (e.g. AAA) + subgroup name (e.g. Cavendish subgroup “Grand Nain”). In Panama, the sweet bananas come mostly from the Cavendish subgroup. The plantain subgroup is also triploid but has the genome group AAB. Characteristics: The banana is an herbaceous (does not have woody components) plant that is often mistaken for a tree because of its height and because of the presence of fake-like stem, called pseudostem. Its height varies between 2 to 8 meters and the leaves can reach a length of up to 3.5 meters. The banana plant is perennial, (can live for more than two years) because of the “children” will grow from the base of the mother plant to replace the parts that have died. The plant is also monocarpic, which means that a shoot can only flower once and will die after the fruit is produced. The leaf crown will be oriented downward due to gravity. The banana fruit originates from an inferior ovary and is in fact a berry. The fruit consists of an exocarp composed of the epidermis that will have a green color when the fruit is immature and will become yellow as it ripe. Then, there is the mesocarp that forms the pulp, and finally the endocarp that is limited to the inner epithelium adjacent to the ovarian cavity. Most cultivated banana fruits have a seedless nature, due to the specific female sterility genes that lack pollen due to triploidy. We called a cluster of fruits a “hand” and a single banana fruit a “finger”. A “bunch” consists of an average of 8 hands of 15 fingers. While the leaves and the bunch grow downward, the fruit will curve upward. Notes: Most bananas are eaten raw, but some varieties, like plantains, have to be cooked first. Bananas constitute a major world food crop and it is a very common fruit in gardens and small-scale farms in tropical countries. It is a valuable source of food because it will produce fruit throughout the whole year and it is rich in nutrients such as vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium. Bananas and plantains are key food security elements for many developing countries. Banana plants are also cultivated for the production of fiber and as an ornamental plant. |