Bananas belong to the genus Musa, of the family Musaceae and the order Scitamineae. Bananas are not grown commercially in the continental United States, but some are grown in Hawaii and shipped to the mainland.
In the western hemispheres, the chief production of bananas occurs in Mexico and the Central Americans countries, in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republican, Honduras, Colombia and Brazil. Bananas are also grown in some Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
Bananas trees are started from young plants that bud from the underground stem or bulb of older plants. It is like a giant that can reach the height of 10 meters, rapidly, within a year’s time. The leaves spring one above another, growing in the tubes of the older leaves.
Its trunk consists of tightly wrapped leaves which push up from ground level.
The trees bear mature fruit 13-15 months after planting, depending on climate, and each other requires an area of 100-400 ft2 (9.3 – 37m2), depending on soil and water conditions.
The trees develop flowering stalks with males and female flowers, and the female flower eventually becomes the fingers (single bananas) of the hand. Only one stem (bunch) of bananas is produced per tree.
It happens when the last of the leaves are grown, a sperm appears and mounts the stem, eventually spreading into the main body of the plant and dropping towards the ground. Then groups of flowers the stem become the bunch of bananas.
The bananas grow upside down on the stem and have to be harvested when green so that flavor of the fruit will develop. It is also worth noting that once the banana plant has borne fruit, it then dies to be replaced by other sucker plants from the root system.
Bananas tree
