A Banana is an Edible Fruit free essay sample

The banana is an edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains, in contrast to dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa Ãâ€" paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata Ãâ€" M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used.Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. We will write a custom essay sample on A Banana is an Edible Fruit or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine, and banana beer and as ornamental plants. The worlds largest producers of bananas in 2016 were India and China, which together accounted for 28% of total production.Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between bananas and plantains. Especially in the Americas and Europe, banana usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains. In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the binary distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.The term banana is also used as the common name for the plants that produce the fruit. This can extend to other members of the genus Musa, such as the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), the pink banana (Musa velutina), and the Fei bananas. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, such as the snow banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana (Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are in the banana family, Musaceae.