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Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless ( parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – '' Musa acuminata'' and '' Musa balbisiana''. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are ''Musa acuminata'', ''Musa balbisiana'', and ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' for the hybrid ''Musa acuminata'' × ''M. balbisiana'', depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name for this hybrid, ''Musa sapientum'', is no longer used. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Banana Cultivars
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''. Cultivated bananas are almost always seedless (parthenocarpic) and hence sterile, so they are propagated vegetatively (cloned). They are classified into groups according to a genome-based system introduced by Ernest Cheesman, Norman Simmonds, and Ken Shepherd, which indicates the degree of genetic inheritance from the two wild parents and the number of chromosomes (ploidy). Cultivars derived from ''Musa acuminata'' are more likely to be used as dessert bananas, while those derived from ''Musa balbisiana'' and hybrids of the two are usually plantains or cooking bananas. Classification of cultivars Banana plants were originally classified by Linnaeus into two species, which he called ''Musa paradisiaca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cooking Banana
Cooking bananas are banana cultivars in the genus '' Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking. They may be eaten ripe or unripe and are generally starchy. Many cooking bananas are referred to as plantains (/ˈplæntɪn/, /plænˈteɪn/, /ˈplɑːntɪn/) or green bananas. In botanical usage, the term "plantain" is used only for true plantains, while other starchy cultivars used for cooking are called "cooking bananas". True plantains are cultivars belonging to the AAB group, while cooking bananas are any cultivars belonging to AAB, AAA, ABB, or BBB groups. The currently accepted scientific name for all such cultivars in these groups is ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca''. Fe'i bananas (''Musa'' × ''troglodytarum'') from the Pacific Islands are often eaten roasted or boiled, and are thus informally referred to as "mountain plantains," but they do not belong to any of the species from which all modern banana cultivars are descended. Cooking bananas are a major food staple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musa (genus)
''Musa'' is one of two or three genera in the family Musaceae. The genus includes flowering plants producing edible bananas and plantains. Around 70 species of ''Musa'' are known, with a broad variety of uses. Though they grow as high as trees, banana and plantain plants are not woody and their apparent "stem" is made up of the bases of the huge leaf stalks. Thus, they are technically gigantic herbaceous plants. ''Musa'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the giant leopard moth and other ''Hypercompe'' species, including '' H. albescens'' (only recorded on ''Musa''), '' H. eridanus'', and '' H. icasia''. Description Banana plants represent some of the largest herbaceous plants existing in the present, with some reaching up to in height (59 feet (18 meters) in the case of ''Musa ingens''). The large herb is composed of a modified underground stem (rhizome), a false trunk of tightly rolled petioles, a network ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musa Acuminata
''Musa acuminata'' is a species of banana native to Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are from this species, although some are hybrids with ''Musa balbisiana''. First cultivated by humans around 10 kya (8000 BCE), it is one of the early examples of domesticated plants. Description ''Musa acuminata'' is an evergreen perennial, not a tree. The trunk (known as the pseudostem) is made of tightly packed layers of leaf sheaths emerging from completely or partially buried corms. The leaves are at the top of the leaf sheaths, or petioles and in the subspecies M. a. truncata the blade or lamina is up to22 feet (seven meters) in length and 39 inches (one meter) wide. The inflorescence grows horizontally or obliquely from the trunk. The individual flowers are white to yellowish-white in color and are negatively geotropic (that is, growing upwards and away from the ground). Both male and female flo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banana Wine
Banana wine is a fruit wine made exclusively from bananas. It is different from banana beer, which has a long tradition and great cultural significance in East Africa. Blocker et al. (2001) wrote a chapter on "Banana Wine" in the book ''Alcohol and temperance in modern history: an international encyclopedia'', though this is slightly confusing, as they define what is traditionally referred to as banana beer as being banana wine. The data they present on ''Production Techniques'' and ''Social Practices and Rituals'' relates to the latter and not to what is commonly known as banana wine. In Tanzania, banana wine is made commercially by fermenting peeled, mashed, ripe bananas. Water (to dilute the rather thick banana mash), wine yeast and sugar is added to the "banana mash". The traditional banana beer processing (as described in the banana beer page and in Blocker et al. (2001)) is different from commercial banana wine processing. For example, the process of making banana wine u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banana Beer
Banana beer is an alcoholic beverage made from fermentation of mashed bananas. Sorghum, millet or maize flour are added as a source of wild yeast. Etymology In Uganda, banana beer is known as ''mubisi'', in DR Congo as Kasiksi, in Kenya as ''urwaga'', and in Rwanda and Burundi as ''urwagwa''. Background Banana beer is sometimes consumed during rituals and ceremonies. A similar product called '' mwenge bigere'' is made in Uganda with only bananas and sorghum.Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods, 2nd edition 1995 It can also be found under the names ''kasiksi'', ''nokrars'', ''rwabitoke'', ''urwedensiya'', ''urwarimu'' and ''milinda kaki''. Production Banana beer is made from ripe (but not over-ripe) East African Highland bananas (''Musa acuminata'' Colla (AAA-EA), ''Mbidde'' clone set). To accelerate the ripening of bananas, a hole is dug in the ground, lined with dried banana leaves which are then set on fire. Fresh banana leaves are laid on top of them, and then the unripe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musa Balbisiana
''Musa balbisiana'', also known simply as plantain, is a wild-type species of banana. It is one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas, along with ''Musa acuminata''. Description It grows lush leaves in clumps with a more upright habit than most cultivated bananas. Flowers grow in inflorescences coloured red to maroon. The fruit are between blue and green. They are considered inedible because of the seeds they contain. Taxonomy It was first scientifically described in 1820 by the Italian botanist Luigi Aloysius Colla. Distribution It is native to eastern South Asia, the eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, northern Southeast Asia, and southern China. Introduced populations exist in the wild, far outside its native range. Uses 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, and ''kluai tani'' (� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musa × Paradisiaca
''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' is the accepted name for the hybrid between '' Musa acuminata'' and '' Musa balbisiana''. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of ''M. acuminata'' alone. Linnaeus originally used the name ''M. paradisiaca'' only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, ''Musa sapientum'', is thus a synonym of ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca''. Description Almost all cultivated plantains and many cultivated bananas are triploid cultivars of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca''. It is believed that Southeast Asian farmers first domesticated ''M. acuminata''. When the cultivated plants spread north-west into areas where ''M. balbisiana'' was native (see map), hybrids between the two species occurred and were then developed further into a wide range of cultivars. Hundreds of cultivar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berry (botany)
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines) and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible " pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as peppers, with air rather than pulp around their seeds. Many berries are edible, but others, such as the fruits of the potato and the deadly nightshade, are poisonous to humans. A plant that bears berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate (a fruit that resembles a berry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zingiberales
The Zingiberales are flowering plants forming one of four orders in the commelinids clade of monocots, together with its sister order, Commelinales. The order includes 68 genera and 2,600 species. Zingiberales are a unique though morphologically diverse order that has been widely recognised as such over a long period of time. They are usually large herbaceous plants with rhizomatous root systems and lacking an aerial stem except when flowering. Flowers are usually large and showy, and the stamens are often modified (staminodes) to also form colourful petal-like structures that attract pollinators. Zingiberales contain eight families that are informally considered as two groups, differing in the number of fertile stamens. A " banana group" of four families appeared first and were named on the basis of large banana-like leaves. Later, a more genetically coherent (monophyletic) "ginger group" appeared, consisting of the remaining four families. The order, which has a fossil re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musaceae
Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, 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. In most treatments, the family has three genera, '' Musella'', ''Musa'' and '' Ensete''. Cultivated bananas are commercially important members of the family, and many others are grown as ornamental plants. Taxonomy The family has been practically universally recognized by taxonomists, although with differing circumscriptions. Older circumscriptions of the family commonly included the genera now included in Heliconiaceae and Strelitziaceae. The APG III system, of 2009 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998), assigns Musaceae to the order Zingiberales in the clade commelinids in the monocots. Genera As currently circumscribed the fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term "fruit" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_and_one_loose_plantain.jpg "Click for more on -> Cooking Banana")
