Most of us in the West eat a lot of bananas. It is, in fact, the most popular fruit of all. But, we actually know very little about this exotic fruit or the plant it comes from. From it’s wild and colorful origins to its rollercoaster history, there are many unexpected revelations about this common fruit we take for granted. Here are some surprising and little-known facts about our favorite fruit.
1. Wild Bananas Are Filled With Seeds
Most wild bananas have fruits that are just chock-full of seeds and may contain very little pulp. They also may be very fibrous. Between the seeds and the texture, they can be inedible.
The bananas we eat are cultivated varieties that are sterile. There are remnants of seeds in them which are the little brown dots you see inside the banana pulp. They will not grow a new plant, though.
These bananas grow new plants from the formation of new shoots from underground “suckers” that sprout from the rhizomes. This occurs after the fruits have been picked and the plant has been cut down. They are cut down so that a new plant will grow since a banana plant grows its fruits on a single stem, of which it will only produce one.
All subsequent plants are clones of the original plant. The cultivated variety originally came about as a hybrid of two species, M. acuminata and M. balbbisiana. Some wild banana varieties can produce edible fruits as well.
2. A Banana Tree Is Not a Tree, It’s a Plant
There are many things we misunderstand about banana trees. The first banana tree fact that most people don’t know is that bananas don’t grow on trees! Most people, when they see a banana plant, tend to think of it as a tree. But it is a plant, or more specifically, a giant herb.
Although you may think the stem of the plant seems like a tree trunk, it has no visible stem (called an aerial stem) or trunk! The actual stem of the plant is under the ground.
The part that we think of as the stem or trunk is just a bunch of leaves grown together in a tight sheath. The leaves grow straight up from the stem under the ground. Younger leaves grow in the center and have to push older leaves out of the way, resulting in a series of crescents that resemble an onion in cross-section. This is thought of as a false stem or pseudostem. The banana tree is the largest known plant without a woody trunk or stem.
3. The Original Bananas Were Red and Green
We North Americans are most familiar with yellow bananas but they come in other colors, too. Originally, bananas were red and green. Yellow bananas appeared on a plant in 1836, in Jamaica.
These bananas were discovered on a plant bearing cooking bananas by Jamaican Jean Francois Poujot. Unlike the bananas he had been growing, it was sweet when eaten raw out of hand. It didn’t need cooking!
He began cultivating these sweet and delicious bananas and, before long, they were being exported all over. It’s not unusual for bananas to spontaneously produce a unique fruit. This is called ‘sporting.’
4. There is a Blue Banana
There is a blue banana, or at least bluish, called the Blue Java banana or ‘blue ice cream’ banana. This variety is said to be sublime, tasting like a sweet and delicious vanilla ice cream.
5. The Banana Has Unlikely Relatives
The banana is related to the lily and the orchid. And it is a cousin to ginger and cardamon. This is because the banana is part of the order of flowering plants called Zingiberales.
In addition to ginger and cardamom, this order also includes turmeric and galangal. These are usually thought of as the “ginger” family but botanists call it the Zingiberaceae family. Also in this order is arrowroot, of the family Marantaceae. Bananas and plantains are in the Musaceae family, of the genus Musa.
6. Bananas are Never Allowed to Ripen on the Plant
Bananas are always picked green and never allowed to ripen on the plant. Ripening is usually sped up by some means under controlled conditions. In some places, smoking is used but today ethylene gas is often applied in order to artificially accelerate the ripening process when needed or desired. They can, of course, be allowed to ripen slowly by themselves.
A banana that ripened on the plant, if a bird or other animal didn’t get to it first, would turn brown and mushy so quickly it could not be shipped to markets all over the world. These bananas also tend to split open, allowing insects to infest the fruit.
But there is another problem. Bananas that ripen on the plant have a mealy texture and are not as sweet as bananas ripened off the plant.
7. Some Botanists Classify the Banana as a Berry
Seems like a strange berry, doesn’t it? Well, not everyone agrees with this classification. Since a berry is a fruit that grows from a single ovary, some botanists figure that a banana should be called a berry since it also grows from a single ovary. The banana is also classified as a simple fruit, however.
8. Iceland is Europe’s Largest Grower of Bananas
Although we usually think of the banana plant growing in warm, tropical climates, Iceland actually produces a lot of bananas. In fact, the country grows a large variety of tropical produce. To do this, they take advantage of the geothermal heat under the land which results in many water and steam geysers.
9. It Was Once Claimed the Banana Could Be Extinct by 2013
According to a 2003 report in The New Scientist, the banana plant has such a narrow genetic base that it is uniquely susceptible to disease and would likely be wiped out by fungal diseases that constantly threatens banana crop, such as the black Sigatoka fungus (Mycosphaerella fijiensis (Morelet), also known as black leaf streak).
The Cavendish variety accounts for almost all the bananas sold in the world, and one other significant crop was already ruined by a fungal disease, the Gros Michel, although smaller crops are still grown in some countries under other names. The Cavendish is more resistant to fungus but unless new more resistant varieties can be developed, the future of the banana is in question. However, the 2013 warning was perhaps a bit overblown.
10. You Can Get Banana Beer in Africa
In Rwanda and other Eastern Africa countries, they make beer out of bananas. Banana beer is made with the juice runoff from mashed bananas and roasted sorghum flour or another flour. The flour acts as a source of wild yeast. Here are some other names for banana beer:
Rwanda and Burundi: urwagwa
Uganda: mubisi
DR Congo: Kasiksi
Kenya: urwaga
Tanzania: Mbege
Bonus Banana Fact
You know about corn starch, arrowroot starch, etc. But, bananas are very high in starch. Why not make a powdered starch or “flour” out of bananas? Well, of course! There is a such thing as banana flour, which we in the west would probably call banana starch if we could buy it at the store. This powdered starch has been produced in large scale in Central America since at least 1900.
I’ve included an image of banana flour in the photo collage above. There are many great things about banana flour/starch. It’s highly digestible, even suitable for babies. It definitely could be used in commercial products, although perhaps not frozen ones, as it’s not very stable when frozen. On the other hand, it could be quite valuable in food products that require high temperature processing.
During the early part of the 20th century, especially around the time of World War I, there was a lot of talk and effort put into the prospect of making banana flour a commercial product available in the West. The United Fruit company thought producing banana flour in commercial quantities would be a great way to get rid of bananas that were too ripe for sale. However, it was produced in large quantities for sale to the general public. It is today used in baby food products, pudding mixes, and the like, though. 1Rooted in America: Foodlore of Popular Fruits and Vegetables. United States, University of Tennessee Press, 1999.,2Banana Breeding: Progress and Challenges. United States, CRC Press, 2011.
