Cardava bananas, also spelled cardaba or kardaba, is a triploid hybrid ( ABB) banana cultivar 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, though it can also be eaten raw. It is commonly confused with the more ubiquitous and closely related saba banana because they are used identically in traditional Filipino cuisine. 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 pseudostems, 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 cooking bananas, but they can be eaten as is if allowed to ripen.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

The cardava banana a triploid ( ABB) hybrid of the seeded bananas '' Musa balbisiana'' and '' Musa acuminata''. 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 Filipino cuisine. However they are deemed more suitable for processing into banana chips due to their larger fruit sizes.

Pests and diseases

Cardava bananas are highly resistant to black sigatoka ('' Mycosphaerella fifiensis''). However it is vulnerable to the "''bugtok''" disease which causes the fruit pulp to harden and become inedible.

References

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