The Beautiful Banana

Banana Bob or B Bob, is a cute little toy I purchased recently for myself as well as my dog just because it made me LOL in the pet isle. B Bob also reminded how very much I love the flare and taste of the delicious banana.

An Old Favorite the World Over

The banana has been around for a very long time. It was first brought to the Americas by Portuguese sailors sometime in the late 1500’s and has been loved and appreciated for its health and pallet delights ever since. The most popular bananas being the Cavendish, or dessert banana and the Plantain, or cooking banana.

The banana is an elongated and generally curved fruit born of large herbaceous flowering plants labeled under the genus Musa. This genus represents some of the largest herbaceous plants in the world reaching heights up to 40 feet. ( Although bananas are grown in over 150 countries with a culminated claim to 1000 different kinds of bananas, I will stick to the familiar.)

Prolific clusters of bananas, hanging precariously from atop the plant, are turned upside down from its weight in just 14 days after its stem has emerged. The story leading up to the development of so many offspring is brief due to the plant reaching full height, up to 40 feet, in just 9 months. In just 6-8 weeks the plant develops leaves, then a flowering stem emerges from the top of the tree and large buds begin to develop. Within each bud a double row of tiny flowers grow. Each flower will become an individual banana or finger. Each row is called a hand and each stem has 9 to 12 hands which means a single banana plant can produce up to 240 bananas!

Bananas and Plantains vary in size, color and firmness but all have soft centers rich in starch and cocooned in a rind which may be green, red, yellow, purple or brown when ripe. Bananas are grown primarily for consumption but are also used to make fiber, banana wine, banana beer and as decorative plants in the home and garden.

The First Banana Splash in Advertising

More songs have been written about the banana than any other fruit on mother earth. The first to make a splash was the Chiquita Banana Ad from 1944 sung by the Portuguese singer from Brazil, Carmen Miranda known for her fruit hats and snappy attitude! It was originally made to teach Americans how to ripen and use the banana.

Fun Facts

There are so many fun facts spotlighting the versatile banana, that it was hard to reduce them down to my ten favorites.

1. The International Banana Museum in Mecca, California proudly claims over 20,000 banana collectibles and earned its place in the Guinness Book of Records as having “the world’s largest collection devoted to one fruit”.
2. Bananas carry a bit of radioactivity due to the mineral potassium. Not to worry, bananas have such trace amounts of potassium in them, you will not be harmed.
3. Bananas float in water and are best bought green. Ripen in a paper bag for best results.
4. Americans eat approximately 27 pounds of bananas per person, per year. Ecuadorians top the list of world consumption at 218 pounds of bananas per person, per year.
5. More than 100 billion bananas are eaten in the world each year.
6. A banana is 75% water and is actually considered a berry.
7. A man in India once ate 85 bananas in 30 minutes. (Say what?)
8. If you peel a banana from the stem up you can avoid those nasty strings that insist on sticking to it.
9. Rubbing a banana peel on your forehead can help relieve a headache.
10. Roses love bananas/peels cut up or whole mixed in with the soil due to their phosphorous and potassium content.

References

1.) Google Images

2.) You tube video