Banana tree

Banana plants are the world’s largest herbs. The botanical name for bananas is Musa sapientum. However it was discovered that Musa sapientum is actually a hybrid cultivar of the wild seeded bananas Musa acuminate and Musa balbisiana. It is a large, tree like perennial herb with a juicy, cylindrical pseudostem.

The stalk of the plant is made from several long, green leaves or sheath which wrap around each other as they grow.

Banana plants grow from 15 to 30 feet (5 to 10 meters) tall.

New shoots arise from short rhizomes close to the parent plant, forming a clump of aerial shoots, the eldest shoot replacing the main plant after it fruits and dies. This process of succession continues indefinitely.

The flowers are arranged in clusters along the floral stalk, the female ones in five to ten rows towards the base, above them may be some hermaphrodite or neuter flowers.

The almost countless varieties of bananas are all classified under species so the genus Musa, which with five other genera, comprises the family Musaceae.

The two species banana that are considered to be the parents of most of the edible seedless bananas eaten by man are Musa acuminate and Musa balbisiana.
Banana tree