Why is the banana like a mule?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
November 29, 2001
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading: Click here.
There are a number of odd things about the domesticated banana plant (Musa X paradisiaca Linnaeus). It is an arborescent (tree-like) perennial herb. The pseudostem (stalk) is composed of leaf bases bundled tightly together. The true stem, a rhizome, remains underground. The inflorescence (flower stalk) grows from the rhizome through the center of the leaf bases and emerges at the top of the bundled leaves.
The inflorescence has male flowers near the tip and female flowers toward the base. Wild (species) bananas must be pollinated to have fruit, but the domesticated banana is a 'mule' (cannot reproduce). The plant is a triploid (having 3 sets of chromosomes) as the result of inheriting one set from the diploid, Musa acuminata (AA) and 2 sets from the tetraploid, Musa balbisiana (BB BB). The domesticated banana (ABB) has 33 chromosomes.
In most plants, if the ovules are not fertilized to form seeds, the fruit never develops. The female flowers of wild bananas develop relatively dry fruit with little or no pulp and large seeds. But the domesticated banana develops large, pulpy, nutritious fruit with no seeds. Because the chromosomes cannot divide equally, the domesticated plant cannot produce seeds. The nourishment that would normally go into the seeds goes instead to the fruit.
The fruit of the banana plant is technically a berry with a leathery outer peel. There are at least 300 varieties of the Musa X paradisiaca berry. The same two parents have given rise to plants that produce berries that ripen yellow or red, are high in sugar, and are generally called bananas. Musa berries that ripen green, are high in starch, and must be eaten cooked are generally called plantains.
The domesticated banana plant is extremely productive and is a tropical substitution for potatoes. On a plot of ground that could produce 95 to 100 pounds of potatoes, a farmer can get 4,500 pounds of plantains. With potatoes, the field must be worked and replanted every year. A banana/plantain field is planted once. After the fruit is harvested, the old stalks are cut down and new stalks arise from the rhizomes.
The University of New England publicity and general interest photographs has posted photographs of a banana plantation. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://photodatabase.une.edu.au/thumbnails.php?album=387
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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