Cardava bananas, also spelled cardaba or kardaba, is a

triploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

(

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

)

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

originating from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is primarily a

cooking banana Cooking bananas are a group of banana cultivars in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking. They are not eaten raw and are generally starchy. Many cooking bananas are referred to as plantains or 'green bananas ...

, though it can also be eaten raw. It is commonly confused with the more ubiquitous and closely related

saba banana Saba banana (pron. or ) is a triploid hybrid (ABB) banana cultivar originating from the Philippines. It is primarily a cooking banana, though it can also be eaten raw. It is one of the most important banana varieties in Philippine cuisine. It i ...

because they are used identically in traditional

Filipino cuisine Filipino cuisine is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct Ethnic groups in the Philippines, ethnolinguistic groups found throughout the Philippines, Philippine archipelago. A majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that comp ...

. Their common names can be interchanged in everyday usage though they are different cultivars.

Description

Like saba bananas, cardava bananas have very large and robust

pseudostem A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, engages in pho ...

s, growing up to a height of , and a diameter of . It takes around 339 days to flower, and 479 days for the fruits to be ready to harvest. Each bunch contains around 150 fruits in 9 hands. The fruits are distinctively larger than saba bananas and have a rounder more pentagonal cross-section. They are typically harvested while unripe since they are used as

s, but they can be eaten as is if allowed to ripen.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

The cardava banana a triploid (

) hybrid of the seeded bananas ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Musa acuminata ''Musa acuminata'' is a species of banana native to South Asia, Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are derived from this species, although some are hybrids wi ...

''. It was formerly believed to be a triploid ''M. balbisiana'' cultivar (BBB), which is now known to be incorrect. Its official designation is ''Musa acuminata'' × ''balbisiana'' (ABB Group) 'Cardava'. Cardava bananas are also spelled as "cardaba" or "kardaba" in Philippine languages. It is also known as ''pisang chematu'' or ''pisang kepok besar'' in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and ''chuối mật'' in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Uses

Cardava bananas are used in the same way as saba bananas in

. However they are deemed more suitable for processing into

banana chips A banana chip (sometimes called banana crisp) is a deep-fried or dried, generally crispy slice of banana. It is usually made from firmer, starchier banana varieties (" cooking bananas" or plantains) like the saba and Nendran cultivars. It ca ...

due to their larger fruit sizes.

Pests and diseases

Cardava bananas are highly resistant to black sigatoka (''

Mycosphaerella fifiensis Black sigatoka is a leaf-spot disease of banana plants caused by the ascomycete fungus ''Mycosphaerella fijiensis'' (Morelet), also known as black leaf streak. It was discovered in 1963 and named for its similarities with yellow Sigatoka, which ...

''). However it is vulnerable to the "''bugtok''" disease which causes the fruit pulp to harden and become inedible.

References

External links