Banana

A giant edible fruit-bearing herb of the genus Musa that has hundreds of varieties in cultivation. Consumption of the banana is mentioned in early Greek, Latin, and Arab writings and Alexander the Great saw bananas on an expedition to India. Just after the discovery of America, the banana was brought from the Canary Islands to the New World, where it was first established in Hispaniola and soon spread to other islands and the mainland. Linguistic evidence supports the probability that bananas were being cultivated Austronesians in Southeast Asia by 3000 BC.

The edible fruit-bearing bananas belong to the genus Musa, and have been classified into two sections, termed Australi-musa and Eumusa. The major cultivar in the Australimusa section (the Fei’i banana, Musa troglodytarum) probably originated in the New Guinea-Solomons area, and was spread into tropical Polynesia by Austronesian colonists. The Eumusa section contains the bananas of economic importance today, and the major cultivars evolved in the region of Malaysia and Indonesia, to be carried by Austronesian settlers into Oceania, and westwards to Madagascar and Africa. On linguistic grounds it seems probable that bananas were being cultivated by Austronesians in Island Southeast Asia by 3000 bc. Claims for a prehistoric introduction into South America across the Pacific are still under debate.