The Common Banana

Although it looks like a tree, the banana is actually an herblike plant. Its "trunk," or pseudostem, is made up of tightly wrapped layers of leaves that grow from an underground stem, or rhizome. New plants are grown from bits of the rhizome, each bit having at least one good bud, or eye. The plant grows rapidly and reaches its greatest height, 15 to 30 feet (4.5 to 9 m), in about a year. A dozen or more leaves, 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m) long and shaped like feathers, extend from the top of the trunk.

Ten months after planting, the large flower bud pushes through the center of the leaf cluster. Each plant bears only one stem of fruit, but by the time the fruit has been harvested, the shoot from a new eye is about six feet (1.8 m) high. A bit will produce fruit every few months for a period of about 10 years.

After the flower bud appears, its stalk lengthens and turns downward. Layers of large, red or purple petallike bracts cover the bud, which is at the tip of the stalk. As the stalk grows, the bracts roll back and fall off, exposing typically 9 to 12 groups of flowers, arranged in a spiral around the stalk. Each group forms a hand of bananas with 10 to 24 single fruits, or fingers. The later rows of flowers do not develop, but the bud remains at the end of the stalk until the fruit is cut. (See photo on previous page.)

The small bananas point downward at first, but develop outward from the stalk, and finally grow upward. Bunches seen hanging in stores are upside down.