I ’m not much of a banana tree someone ( unless it ’s cooked in rum and butter , though that combo will make anything taste divine ) , but I get it on having banana tree around when I used to exist in geographical zone 10b .
Among the many Tree that maturate inmy Southern California gardenyears ago , there was an abundance of bananas flourishing year - circular , all in unlike leg of ripeness .
A few of them even get over my hammocks and impregnate such a balmy and tropical feel to the setting , it was well-fixed to block that we know in the city with foghorns fuck up from the Port of Los Angeles every day .
Even though I call them “ trees , ” they ’re actually plants — and to be more specific , banana tree industrial plant are herbaceous perennials .
In other words , herbs .
They ’re one of those things in sprightliness that are n’t what they seem to be , the direction tomatoes are technically fruits ( not vegetables ) anddandelions are herb ( not weeds ) .
In the lawsuit of banana , they ’re a yield … but not a yield .
Befuddled ? Let me explicate .
Bizarre botanical fact #1: A banana is an herb.
That ’s right — a banana tree industrial plant is technically a big herbaceous plant , distantly related to another garden rootstalk , ginger .
While most people think of basil , parsley , or rosemary when they think of herbaceous plant , it ’s gentle to see how a banana tree can be an herb if we look at more “ exotic ” herbs like lemon grass , horseradish , and wasabi .
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A banana tree is think an herb in botanic term because it never forms a woody stem ( or body ) the way a tree does . Rather , it forms a succulent stalk , or pseudostem .
The pseudostem begins as a small shoot from an underground rhizome shout a corm . It grows upwardly as a single still hunt with a tight volute of leafage sheaths wrapped around it . banana tree leaves are plainly extension of the sheaths .
As the pseudostem grows , these give unfurl and fan out at the top . They ’re fragile for their sizing and shred easily , leave in the feathery frond we usually connect with banana palms .
( And to quash that misnomer , bananas arenotrelated to palm trees either . )
Over the course of a class , the stalk bit by bit pushes its way out from the nub of the pseudostem and terminates in a large , inflorescence , yield - suffer bud called an efflorescence .
After fruit , the pseudostem dies to the ground but the corm remains combat-ready with new dot of ontogenesis .
Several shoots ( or pup ) emerge from the base of the old pseudostem and become new plants that also flower , yield , die , and goad the next set of shoots .
This constant process bring forth many generations of shoots and a undivided corm can have a productive lifespan of ten .
If you never get rid of or transplant the shoots , they end up growing in cluster and give the appearance of a tumid , matured tree .
Bizarre botanical fact #2: A banana is also a berry.
During the flowering stage , an florescence ( also called a banana heart , as it emerges from the affectionateness of the industrial plant ) appear on the end of the stem . It is ordinarily a long , tapering , tightly wrapped , deep purple bud .
( You caneat banana flowers , by the means . They ’re a staple in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisines and unremarkably get hold in the produce aisle of those market place in the United States . )
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As the petal - like bracts on the bud begin to open one by one , they reveal treble row of nectar - productive prime . As you could imagine , thebees locomote crazy over our banana blossomsandhummingbirds , which love tubelike - shaped peak , made frequent visits throughout the day .
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The first several rows to be expose are distaff flowers that develop into “ hands ” ( or tiers ) of bananas , typically with 12 to 20 bananas making up a hand .
Because the fruit is produced from a undivided ovary on the blossom , a banana is actually classified as a berry , botanically talk .
So , it ’s an herbanda Charles Edward Berry … How ’s that for puzzling ?
Bizarre botanical fact #3: Banana anatomy was coined by slave traders.
A hang cluster of hired man on a banana works is called a clustering , with each bunch holding 7 to 14 hand of bananas .
As you likely guessed , individual bananas on a hand are called finger .
One might call back all these terms ( bunches , hand , and fingers ) were first coined by , you screw , the granger who really spring up them , but in fact , they were named byArab slave traders who also swop bananas .
After all the distaff flowers have fruited , they ’re watch by run-in of sterile flowers that shrivel and shed in succession , then row of male flowers that also wither and shed .
Read next : How to pollenate squash by handif your plants have lots of flowers but no fruits
stratum upon layer of bract and flowers go down off every day , leaving behind a longsighted , knobby , nude yield stem called a rachis .
Some people believe that cutting off the rachis after the last script of banana will send more energy to the developing yield .
I ’ve tried this several clip and eventually just left the rachis on , since I never notice a deviation in the size of it or tone of my bananas whenever I prune the rachis .
Bizarre botanical fact #4: Modern bananas have been bred to be sterile… but they DID have seeds at one point.
A plant produces a single harvest of bananas and then dies , propagated only by new shoots from the corm .
Each of these shoots ( pseudostems ) go on to live for only two to three years , but because the corm can survive for many days , the banana tree industrial plant ’s reproductive process is unique for a fruit .
Bananas are bred as parthenocarpic plant and do n’t necessitate any pollination to make fruit .
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There are no seeds , as modern - day cultivated bananas ( like the Cavendish potpourri sold in storage , or the popularCavendish bananasandice cream bananasgrown in backyard ) are sterile . What seeds theyusedto have are now barely flecks in the anatomy .
However , if you ’ve ever peeled the yield ( err , Chuck Berry ) of an cosmetic pink banana tree plant ( Musa velutina ) , you may have note the frame was full of freehanded shameful seeds . Though this pinkish banana tree below was find in a rain forest in Panama , it ’s actually a cold - tolerant miscellanea . Thebanana split up and peelswhen the fruit is advanced .
Non - educate bananas are all like this , and while ornamental variety likeMusaare still eatable , they ’re often more work than they ’re worth .
In warm mood ( USDA geographical zone 10 and higher ) , banana plants are non - seasonal and fruit class - rotund .
But ! you’re able to still love homegrown banana tree if you live in a cold clime .
moth-eaten - tolerant varieties of bananas ( I cognize , that sounds like an oxymoron for a tropic plant ) can survive just above freezing , but the pseudostems die to the terra firma in wintertime .
Musa velutina ( hardy to zone 7b ) andMusa basjoo(hardy to district 5 , though it wo n’t flower when it ’s that cold ) are two such varieties that will air up novel shoots in outpouring when the weather warms up again , as long as the corm is heavilymulched and protected from cold .
If you do n’t want to fret with them in a curt or cold rise time of year , bananas can be kept as houseplantsand may even produce yield if given ample sun and heat .
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Now that I ’m in Central Oregon , I ’m entertaining the estimation of growing bananas again in my landscape . How fun would that be to have banana amid my conifers and aspens ?
This post updated from an article that in the first place appear on December 14 , 2011 .
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