Banana tree

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Banana tree

         Banana is one of the oldest cultivated plants, beeing the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between "bananas" and "plantains". They are native to tropical South and Southeast Asia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in at least 107 countries beeing cultivated throughout the tropics primarily for their fruit.
          Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana.
          The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. The plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy and are often mistaken for trees, but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem that grows 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 24.9 ft) tall, growing from a corm. Each pseudostem can produce a single bunch of bananas. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots may develop from the base of the plant. Many varieties of bananas are perennial.