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• General and History
• Buying and Storing Bananas
• Varieties - "desert" bananas
• Plantain - cooking bananas
• Banana Flower
• Banana Leaf
• Other Musa families
  • Dwarf Banana
  • Enset
  • Manilla Hemp

Banana were one of the earliest agricultural crops, starting about 10,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. Taken from there to Africa and from Africa to Central and South America, it is now an important crop throughout the tropical areas of the world. The name "banana" is African.

Bananas are the world's most popular fruit. Even in the U.S. where bananas are not grown the average person, in a year, eats 10 pounds more bananas than apples. Bananas are currently the 4th most important source of nutrition for the world's population, following only rice, wheat and corn.

Scientific naming of bananas is highly confusing because the scientists have been highly confused.

Bananas are generally sold slightly unripe, which is fine because they are more durable that way and ripen well at room temperature. Avoid bruised fruit and bananas that are all green - they may not ripen well. Green plantains for cooking are the exception.

Do not refrigerate or expose to extreme temperatures or they will not ripen properly. When ripe, they can be refrigerated for a couple days to prevent them from becoming mushy. The skins turn brown when refrigerated but this does not affect the flesh.

Store bananas away from other fruits unless you want those fruit to ripen more quickly. Bananas exude a lot of ethylene gas which causes fruit to ripen.

Banana - [Musa paradisiaca sapientum]

Baby Banana - See Nino Banana

Blue Java - [Blue Java Ice Cream]
A banana with a blue-green peel covering a sweet creamy flesh. I have yet to see any of them around here.

Burro
This banana is now fairly available in Southern California particularly in ethnic groceries. It's short, rather squarish in cross section and more flavorful than the Cavendish. They are noted for a hint of lemon in the flavor.

Cavendish
This is your supermarket banana, grown on huge plantations of genetically identical plants to support a $4 billion export market. It is not the best tasting banana but holds its dominant position by convenience of storage and shipping. It is ripe when it shows some black spots on the peel.

The Cavendish is propagated by root suckers. It's a sterile seedless banana producing neither pollen nor seed, Every plant is an offshoot of one single original plant. This lack of diversity places the crop at great risk of disease and there's no way to breed disease resistance.

Currently the black sigatoka fungus is a major problem and airborne spraying is the only defense, accounting for a full 20% of the cost of growing bananas.

A soil bacteria called Tropical Race 4 also now threatens the Cavendish just as a previous variety wiped out its commercial predecessor, Gros Michel. Prepare at least for higher prices and the possible disappearance of the familiar seedless dessert banana.

Gros Michel [Big Mike]
The original banana imported to the U.S. and the original product of the United Fruit Company (originally the Boston Fruit Company - now Chiquita Brands). It was wiped out as a commercial product in the early 1950s by disease, forcing United Fruit to replant in Cavindish, a less flavorful and more difficult to ship variety.

Manzano - [Apple Banana]
These small bananas are now grown in many areas and are easily available in Southern California markets catering to Latino populations. They should be eaten when they show a fair number of black spots but before they become predominantly black. They have a faint apple or strawberry flavor but mostly taste like bananas.

Nino - [PLU 4234]
Mineature bananas now becoming common in Southern California markets. The photo specimens came from Equador and were 4 inches long and weighed 1.65 ounces each in bunches of 6. Favored by restaurants for fancy deserts they're pleasantly sweet and are ripe when they just start to get a few black specks.

Popoulou
A Polynesian cooking banana, short and blunt, resembling a Mediterranean squash. Subst: Plantain.

Red Banana
These short banana is now very popular with supermarkets in upscale areas because their exotic appearance allows the market to charge high prices. They tastes pretty much like bananas but sweeter than the Cavendish. They should be eaten when the first black spots appear.

Yangambi Km5
A flavorful disease resistant African variety from the Congo which may become a popular dessert banana if disease destroys the familiar Cavendish.

Plantain - [Musa paradisiaca]
This is the main banana in most of the world. It is starchier than the "desert" bananas and is generally cooked while still green or somewhat green. Some recipes call for them ripe and they will be black when ripe. The flesh tends to be a little orange in color.

Banana Flower - [banana heart, banana bell (Australia) dok kluai (Thai), shang chao fua (China)]
This pointy heart shape device is the male flower set of the banana or plantain plant. It forms a point at the end of the flowering stem. Above it are the large number of female flowers that will mature into bananas (whether fertilized or not).

Banana flowers are used in Asian cuisines from India through Indonesia and can frequently be found fresh in Southern California. You need to peel off the tough bitter outer bract layers and their associated flowers until you get to the yellow inner layers which are brittle rather than tough. The inner section can then be sliced for use in recipes. The flavor is a little like banana peel but less bitter and astringent. The outer bracts make very nice boats for serving salads and such in.

Some may not be particularly thrilled with the taste of banana flowers and they may not always be easy to get anyway. In such cases slivered bamboo shoots can be substituted in recipes.

Select fresh flowers that are firm and bright. They can be stored in the refrigerator in plastic bags for a few days. They are prepared by peeling off the dark outer layers until lighter layers are found, then slice or dice per the recipe. Some cooks steam the entire flower first before peeling off the outer layers.

Banana Leaf
Banana leaf is used in many tropical areas of the world in place of plates, particularly at banquets and other large events and in street food stalls and restaurants.

Leaves are also an important food wrapper particularly to hold and protect food during steaming and for making rice cakes, which may be cylindrical or pyramid shaped.

Banana leaves are easily available in the freezer cases of Asian grocers here in Southern California and probably through most of the country. They need to be thawed to use but any leftovers can be refrozen without degrading. Banana leaves impart only a slight flavor to food so if you can't get them you can use corn husks or aluminum foil.

The photo shows about 1/4 of a banana leaf (split down the spine and then cut in half crosswise) which is they way they are normally sold, fresh or frozen. This 1/4 leaf was 3 feet long and nearly a foot across at the widest point.

Dwarf Banana [Musa acuminata]
A low growing banana plant grown particularly in the West Indies for edible fruit. Photo by Raul654 distributed under GNU Free Documentation License v1.2

Enset - [False Banana, Ensete ventricosum]
Planted widely in Ethiopia to prevent famine. See Note-B1.

Manilla Hemp [Musa textilis]
This plant is grown for its tough fibers. It is related to the banana and completely unrelated to the hemp Cannabis sativa from which marijuana is derived. Manilla Hemp has been primarily used to manufacture rope and paper (from which we get the term "manilla envelope").

• B1 - Enset - AAAS