(Banana)

Bananas and plantains belong to the genus Musa which encompasses about 30 species of giant, tropical, tree-like herbs. Most originate from southeastern Asia and northern Australia. Bananas are one of the world's most important food crops and are grown in warm, moist regions globally.

The clump-forming plants develop large, upright, fast-growing stems with enormous long flat leaves that emerge from aggressive rhizomes (lateral underground stems). The stems are made up of huge tightly...

(Banana, Hybrid Banana)

Bananas are one of the world's most important food crops and are grown in warm, moist regions globally. The AAAB Group of bananas are primarily the result of extensive and deliberate breeding programs to develop new plants with resistance to devestating diseases. One such renowned breeding center is in Honduras, the FHIA. Disease-resistant hybrids are vital to human livelihood and nutrition in tropical parts of the world where banana crop diseases are rampant.

The clump-forming plants develop...

(Banana, Edible Banana)

Edible banana is an upright, fast-growing, tree-like perennial with large flat leaves and long pendulous flower spikes. The flowers give rise to a large crop of edible banana fruits in hands on this native of Southeastern Asia and northern Australia. This large herbaceous perennial forms a clump of plants, each flowering and fruiting only once before dying.

Banana plants love warm fertile soils with consistent moisture. Full sun exposures are best, a long growing season is required to set the...

Edible banana is an upright, fast-growing, tree-like perennial with large flat leaves and long pendulous flower spikes. The flowers give rise to a large crop of edible banana fruits in hands on this native of Southeastern Asia and northern Australia. This large herbaceous perennial forms a clump of plants, each flowering and fruiting only once before dying.

Banana plants love warm fertile soils with consistent moisture. Full sun exposures are best, a long growing season is required to set the...

(Banana, Dwarf Banana, Little Prince Banana)

This edible banana, ‘Little Prince,’ is a very dwarf selection of a species native to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. It is an upright, fast-growing herb (not a tree) with large flat leaves and long pendent flower spikes. The flowers give rise to a large crop of edible banana fruits in hands. This herbaceous perennial forms a clump of plants, each flowering and fruiting only once before it dies. The plant continually sends up new shoots, thus perpetuating the production of hands on more stalks.

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(Banana, Zebrina Banana)

The banana cultivar, ‘Zebrina’, is an upright, fast-growing, ornamental tropical tree-like herb with large, flat, green leaves that have stripes of maroon. The long, pendent flowers give rise to a cluster of small, inedible, maroon-colored fruits. This decorative, herbaceous perennial forms a clump of plants, each flowering and fruiting only once before dying, but it keeps on sending up new shoots to make new plants.

Banana plants love warm fertile soil with consistent moisture. Full sun exposures...

(Hardy Banana)

Of all the bananas, this is the most hardy and amenable to colder climates. Hardy banana or Japanese fiber banana is an evergreen, tree-like perennial native to Japan. Its immense, arching, paddle-shaped leaves have horizontal ribbed veins and lend a tropical look to the landscape. They remain evergreen year round in subtropical to tropical areas but are deciduous in more temperate regions. In summer, it bears pendent spikes of flowers in the axils of large, brown floral bracts. The flowers sometimes...

(Banana, Cardaba Banana, Hybrid Banana)

A starchy banana that may be eaten raw but usually cooked, the Cardaba banana is a vigorous, very cold-hardy, fast growing, tropical herb (not a tree) with large, flat, whitish blue-green leaves. Very popular in the Philippines, the fruits are sliced into chips, fried and called turones. Hands are lined with plump, non-uniform, angular, green fruits rich in starches and may be better called a sweet plantain.

The hybrid 'Cardaba' is a triploid plant (ABB) with most characteristics of the parent...

(Banana, Cavendish Banana)

Banana is one of the world's most important food crops. The Cavendish group is a subgroup of edible bananas. They are particularly popular as crops in the tropical Americas and the Philippines and are said to put forth nearly half of the world’s banana production. All have a moderate to short stature are typically broad leaved and produce lots of high quality seedless yellow fruit.

Like all edible bananas, its members have been long cultivated and are hybrids of Musa acuminata and M....