Banana - How much you know about it ?

Well I do feel happy when I either eat it or just look at it, what about you?

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 150 countries in the world currently produce bananas which makes it the most popular fruit and one of the largest crops in the world.

Indian is actually the world largest producers of bananas, producing around 28 million tonnes each year followed by China with approx. 13 million tonnes annually!

Often we assume that the banana fruit grows on trees, but in reality the banana plant is a high herb which can grow up to 15 metres which makes it the world largest herb!

What looks like a trunk is in fact a pseudostem made from tightly packed leaf sheaths.
The banana plant has large leaves closely rolled up one over the other.
Together they look like a trunk, but they form only an apparent trunk.
Do you know that the tender core part of this pseudostem is consumed too, mainly cooked in curries!?

The banana plant has an underground stem with roots which is full of food for the plant and alongside the main stem, it has other stems called suckers.
These suckers grow into banana plants when the main stem has already produced its fruit and dies.

Inside the main stem there is a bud which produces leaves for around 7 or 8 months and when some 30 leaves have grown, the bud produces flowers.

The flowers of the banana plant form a large spike which turns downward, to the soil and opens.
It bears male and female flowers.

The female flowers are pressed closely together in the shape of hands which will become bananas and a red bud at the end of the spike containing the male flowers; the male flowers die quickly and the bud slowly becomes smaller.

One spike produces many bananas and are called a bunch.
On this bunch, the bananas are clustered in several hands and each hand can contain 10 to 20 bananas!!!

There are over 1000 different varieties of bananas growing around the world, let's look at some of the most famous ones!

CAVENDISH

More than 95% of the bananas sold in the U.S. are Cavendish, this cultivar has dominated the market since the 1970s!
They are the long yellow and slightly sweet bananas.
The perfect ripeness depends on personal taste, of course. Super ripe and browning bananas can be preserved in the fridge—peel and all—and peeled and used to make smoothies or banana bread!

LADY FINGER

Lady finger bananas are smaller and sweeter than the longer and milder Cavendish.
They can be used the same way, but make particularly portion-controlled snacks, especially for kids!

RED BANANA

There are many types of red bananas, but they share two things in common: firstly they look super cool, and secondly they tend to be on the sweeter side of the banana flavor family.
Eat them out of hand or add them to dishes, but when they're red, they're ready to eat!

PLANTAIN

Plantain bananas are sold green and are actually to be cooked!
They can be roasted, steamed, fried into chips and otherwise used like any starchy vegetable.
Many different types of bananas can be used as "cooking bananas" while they're still green and starchy.

So here we are dear Steemians, that's a little glimpse of the world of bananas!

WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE ONE???

Please do comment below! Should you like the post, kindly upvote and resteem!

Thank you!

Image Sources
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10