bananaArticle Free Pass banana, fruit of the genus Musa, of the
family Musaceae, one of the most important food crops of the
world. The banana is consumed extensively throughout the
tropics, where it is grown, and is also valued in the temperate
zone for its flavour, nutritional value, and availability
throughout the year. The plant is a gigantic herb that springs
from an underground stem, or rhizome, to form a false trunk 3–6
metres (10–20 feet) high. This trunk is composed of the basal
portions of leaf sheaths and is crowned with a rosette of 10 to
20 oblong to elliptic leaves that sometimes attain a length of
3–3.5 metres (10–11.5 feet) and a breadth of 65 cm (26 inches).
A large flower spike, carrying numerous yellowish flowers,
emerges at the top of the false trunk and bends downward to
become bunches of 50 to 150 individual fruits, or fingers. The
individual fruits, or bananas, are grouped in clusters, or
hands, of 10 to 20. After a plant has fruited, it is cut down to
the ground, because each trunk pro