a fruit which belongs to the tropics and has its origin in SE Asia, has achieved a remarkably high level of consumption in temperate countries. For consumers there, bananas are almost uniform in appearance, being varieties which ship well and look good. But in the tropical regions where bananas grow there are countless varieties, varying widely in appearance and eating qualities. There are, moreover, both eating bananas and cooking bananas, usually called plantains. The latter have an entry of their own, dealing with their varieties and culinary uses, but they are not a separate species and therefore figure in this entry in their botanical aspect.
The banana plant is a strange growth, which looks like a palm tree, but is not a tree. It is a perennial herb which grows a complete new ‘trunk’ every year, and dies back to its roots after it has flowered and fruited. This is all the more remarkable in that some kinds grow to a height of 12 m (40′). The ‘trunk’ is in fact composed of overlapping bases of leaves wrapped tightly to make a fairly rigid column. New leaves constantly emerge at the top, forming a crown of leaves which are blown into tattered strips by the wind (a neat evolutionary adaptation to lower their wind resistance, for the ‘trunk’ is not as strong as a real tree trunk and risks being blown down).
Eventually the flowering stem emerges at the top, bearing a large flower surrounded by red bracts, the whole growth having a strikingly phallic appearance. The bananas develop some way back from the flowering tip of the stem. The increasing weight causes the stem to bend over, so that the fruits point upwards. They are arranged in ‘hands’ of ten to twenty bananas set in a double row in a half spiral around the stem. There may be up to fifteen hands in a complete bunch, which can weigh 45 kg (100 lb) or more.
The history and botanical classification of bananas are subjects best left to experts, e.g. Purseglove (1985), for they are of extreme complexity. A starting point is the wild banana of the Malaysian/Indonesian region, Musa acuminata, sometimes known as the ‘monkey banana’, whose fruits were no doubt used for food from very early times. This species and a hybrid between it and an inedible wild species, M. balbisiana, are the ancestors of most modern cultivated bananas. They are often described as being in the series of Eumusa (good banana) cultivars, and may be distinguished from each other by what is called their ‘ploidy’. For most purposes it is enough to know the names and characteristics of the cultivars.
It seems likely that edible bananas date back several thousand years in India. They were certainly known by repute to the Greeks in the 4th century bc, when the army of Alexander the Great encountered them on trees in India. Pliny the Elder, writing several centuries later, recorded the incident and cited the Indian name pala for the fruit. This name passed into classical Greek and is reflected in some modern Indian names. The classical writer Theophrastus repeated a legend that wise men sat in the shade of the banana tree and ate its fruit, whence the pleasing but now obsolete botanical name M. sapientium, meaning ‘banana of the sages’.
The banana reached China about ad 200, when it is mentioned in the works of Yang Fu. However, it was grown only in the south, and was considered a rare, exotic fruit in the north, an attitude which lasted well into the 20th century.
During the 1st millennium ad the banana also arrived in Africa, probably taken directly from the Malay region to Madagascar. By the end of the 14th century the fruit was being cultivated right across the continent to the west coast.
During the same period it was taken eastward through the Pacific islands. The Arabs had spread cultivation through their lands south of the Mediterranean before ad 650, but no further north than Egypt, the climate in S. Europe being too cool for the plant. Consequently, the banana remained unknown to most Europeans until much later, although the discovery in 1999 of a banana skin in a Tudor rubbish tip in London puts back the date of the earliest entry of the fruit into England from its display in the herbalist Robert Johnson's shop in 1633.
The first serious European contact with the fruit came not long after 1402, when Portuguese sailors found it in W. Africa and took it to the Canary Islands. That is why the European name ‘banana’ comes from a W. African word, the Guinean banema or banana (also bana, gbana, etc. in neighbouring regions). The Canaries have remained an important banana-growing area ever since, and it was from there that a Spanish missionary, later Bishop of Panama, took banana roots to America in 1516, after which the new plant spread quickly through C. America and the northern parts of S. America. For some reason the Spaniards saw a likeness between the banana tree and the totally different plane tree (plateno), which is how the plantain got its confusing name.
Another myth now appears. The spread of the banana in S. America was so rapid, often anticipating the progress of the colonists, that some early writers were convinced that it had existed in S. America, among the Inca, before the Spanish Conquest.
During the 19th century occasional small consignments of bananas were sent by fast ships from the Canaries to Europe and from Cuba to the USA. Early varieties had not been bred for keeping qualities, so the fruit had to arrive in little more than a fortnight and was an expensive luxury. But all this began to change in the 1870s, when two American entrepreneurs began to ship bananas from the Caribbean to New Orleans, Boston, and New York. They also set up plantations on virgin soil in producing areas. In 1899 they merged their interests to form the United Fruit Company, which had and still has great influence in C. America and the islands, for most of the trade of these lands depended on it; hence the derogatory name ‘banana republics’.
However, whatever view is taken of this influence, the company must be given credit for making the banana a familiar and reasonably priced fruit in temperate lands. Other companies followed its lead, and handsome, big, yellow, Caribbean bananas began to appear in Europe as well, ousting the small brown Canary ones. The acceptance of the fruit was almost entirely due to promotion and marketing by the various companies involved, for example Elders and Fyffes Ltd in Great Britain from 1901.
The main commercial varieties of the banana are Gros Michel and Cavendish Gros Michel. Gros Michel is the familiar, big, yellow eating banana which has for decades been the main export variety. It is thick skinned, robust in shipment, reliable in quality, and of adequate flavour. It has long been grown in SE Asia and Sri Lanka. In Malaysia and Indonesia it is called ‘pisang Ambon’ (Amboyna banana). Introduced to the W. Indies in 1835, it soon became the dominant variety, and is often called the Jamaican banana.
Cavendish bananas are a group of southern Chinese origin. The most popular cultivar is Dwarf Cavendish, so named because the plant has a short stem. This variety can stand a cooler climate than most bananas. The Canary banana is a subvariety of Dwarf Cavendish.
Cavendish bananas are shorter, blunter, duller coloured, and thinner skinned than Gros Michel. The flavour of most kinds is better, and they are preferred in Asia, where they are the leading variety. They are now replacing Gros Michel in the W. Indies and parts of S. America.
Lacatan is another export variety very similar to export types of Dwarf Cavendish. It is the lakatan of the Philippines, where it is regarded as the best banana in the world. It is highly aromatic and its pulp is sweet, firm, and light orange-yellow when ripe.
Other varieties, including some particularly good ones, are usually eaten only in the regions where they are grown, because their skins are too thin or their lives too short to permit export except by air, as a luxury item.
The silk banana is grown in tropical regions worldwide. In the French W. Indies alternative names are used, meaning ‘plum, apple, or pineapple fig’. It has very white flesh and a sweet but sharp taste. A similar variety, also widely grown but less important, is the lady's finger or apple banana.
A small, thin-skinned, deep yellow banana of bulbous shape is called sucrier or bird's fig in the W. Indies and pisang mas (golden banana) in Malaya and Indonesia. It is a major variety in New Guinea, with a flavour which is sweet and pleasing.
The Mysore banana grows well in poor soil and is often cultivated in the more barren parts of Asia. It is quite a good eating variety and is of great importance in India. In Thailand it has a name meaning ‘milk of heaven’.
Both in Asia and the W. Indies there are several kinds of red banana, sometimes green striped, with pink flesh. They are delicious, but frail and short-lived. Nevertheless a few are exported to the USA.
The bananas grown for export are suitable for being picked when only two-thirds ripe, and continue to ripen during shipment. The ripening process involves a chemical change in which starch is converted to sugars (made up of sucrose 66%, fructose 14%, and glucose 20%). Protopectin is also converted to soluble pectin. As bananas ripen they give off ethylene gas. Most fruits do this during ripening, but bananas produce an exceptionally large amount. (Ethylene causes ripening and development of colour, as well as being produced by it, so one fruit can help another to ripen. A ripening banana put in a lidded box with green tomatoes turns them red. It also helps a hard avocado to ripen overnight.)
Apart from being eaten fresh, bananas may be made into interesting desserts, e.g. banana fritters and Caribbean sweet dishes in which bananas are flavoured with rum. In India, bananas are made into various confections, such as panchamrutham, spiced and sweetened with honey.
Other parts of the banana plant are also used as food or in connection with food. See banana flower; banana leaf.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
