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Musa acuminata (Banana, Plantain) Life
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> Family: Musaceae
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Musa acuminata (Banana). [photo H. Robertson, Iziko
©] |
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All edible bananas orginate in whole or in part from Musa
acuminata which is native to the Malay Peninsula and adjacent regions. In
prehistoric times, people selected plants with seedless fruits and since then
they have been propagated vegetatively from suckers. Although there are huge
commercial operations exporting bananas from tropical regions to rich countries
in temperate regions, the majority of bananas are
grown by small farmers in tropical countries for local consumption.
Bananas Musa acuminata (Lady Finger
variety). |
Musa acuminata is a species native to the
Malay Peninsula and adjacent regions and is thought to have given rise in total
or in part to all edible banana varieties. Some of the varieties have arisen as
a result of hybridisation between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana
the latter of which is found from India eastwards to the tropical Pacific. This
hybridisation probably occurred as Musa acuminata plants (2n genome
= AA) were increasingly cultivated over the distributional range of Musa
balbisiana (2n genome = BB). Although the Musa acuminata
cultivars were sterile because of being seedless, they did produce fertile
pollen.
| Genome |
Varieties |
| AA |
Diploid (2n = 22) wild Musa
acuminata. Human selection in prehistoric times resulted in the
production of seedless cultivars. These diploid varieties are still grown
in New Guinea. |
| AAA |
Triploid (3n) mutants of Musa
acuminata. Probably arose a number of times in early cultivation of
bananas in the Malaysian region. They are more productive, quicker growing
and develop larger fruit than the diploid cultivars. Most cultivated
bananas are of this triploid type and two important clone varieties have
predominated:
- Cavendish. Named after the family name of
the Duke of Devonshire in England who in 1836 managed to get this
clone to flower in his greenhouse. The clone came from Southeast Asia,
south China and the East Indies and in the 1800's was spread
from this region by the British and French to other tropical and
subtropical regions, with the notable exception of Central and South
America where it took quite a time before it predominated over the
Gros Michel clone. It has ultimately become the main clone grown world
wide in commercial banana production. Although not shipping as well as
the Gros Michel clone, it has the advantages of being resistant to a
devastating soil fungus (see below) and also of being more productive.
- Gros Michel. This clone was originally
propagated in gardens of Burma, Thailand, Malaya, Indonesia and
Ceylon. From 1825 to 1875 it was introduced to the islands of the West
Indies and to some of the Pacific Islands. However, the region that
adopted it to the greatest extent was tropical America where it was
the main clone grown in the huge banana plantations that were owned
and controlled by a U.S. company called the United Fruit Company.
Countries with these plantations were effectively controlled by this
company and became known as 'banana republics', and the term is now
generally used in a derogatory way to refer to small tropical
countries that depend on foreign investment. The United Fruit Company
developed methods of shipping the bananas to the U.S. quickly before
they became overripe. Gros Michel bananas, compared to Cavendish,
shipped better because they could take rougher handling when green and
could be shipped in whole bunches rather than having to have hands of
bananas individually wrapped. Gros Michel predominated in this region
until the arrival from the East Indies in about 1893 of a
devastating parasitic soil fungus called Fusarium oxysporum to
which Gros Michel was susceptible and which spread slowly through this
region. The approach of the United Fruit Company was to abandon
plantations where the fungus had become established (or grow some
other crop on them) and start new plantations on virgin land. This
resulted in the shift of plantations from the Caribbean east coast of
America to the Pacific west coast. Another fruit company called the
Standard Fruit Company, operating initially from Honduras, solved the
fungus problem by growing the non-susceptible Cavendish clone and
developing methods of breaking the banana bunches into hands and
packing these in cardboard boxes for shipping, thus solving the
shipping issue for this particular clone. This method of shipping also
has the added benefit of enabling mechanisation (lifting boxes is
easier than lifting large ungainly bunches) and speeding up
distribution at the country of destination. Eventually, United Fruit
Company also started growing the Cavendish variety. After the Second
World War there was a strong move towards commercial growing of
bananas by independent growers who formed cooperatives which sold to
export companies.
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| AB and AAB |
Cultivars with a single Musa
balbisiana genome are sweet and include the Ladyfinger banana. |
| ABB |
Yields starchy bananas used in cooking
and called plantains although this term is sometimes used confusingly for
normal bananas. |
Despite the huge commercial operations exporting bananas
from tropical countries to rich, temperate countries mainly in North America and
Europe, it has been estimated that about 85% of all bananas produced, are grown
by small farmers for local consumption.
References
-
Sauer, J.D. 1993. Historical geography of
crop plants - a select roster. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Text by Hamish Robertson
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