what is a banana?

Answer 1

A banana is a fruit,it is yellow an has a sort of curvy semi circle shape.You can visit you local supermarket/grocery store and they can show you one.

Answer 2

a banana is a long yellow fruit that monkeys like to eat .!?X

Answer 3

a banana is when you skin your knee and a hard crust forms on the wound. it is also when two poodles walk on the beach.

Answer 4

a fruit that has alot of potassium...... it is good tasting...... very similar to plaintains...... but bananas are yellow when ripe......there is even a species of banana they are like mini bananas also very good.... kind of exotic taste

Answer 5

It's a fruit that grows on trees.

Answer 6

That thing that's sticking out of your ear. And you wonder why everyone stares at you.

Answer 7

me monkey bouncy me monkey bouncy

Answer 8

Banana is the common name for a fruit and also the herbaceous plants of the genus Musa which produce the commonly eaten fruit. They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia. Today, they are cultivated throughout the Tropics. [1]

Banana plants are of the family Musaceae. They are cultivated primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent for the production of fibre and as ornamental plants. As the bananas are mainly tall, upright, and fairly sturdy, they are often mistaken for tree, when the truth is the main or upright stem is called a pseudostem,literally meaning "fake stem", which for some species can obtain a height of up to 2–8 m, with leaves of up to 3.5 m in length. Each pseudostem would produce a bunch of yellow, green, or even red bananas before dying and being replaced by another pseudostem.

The banana fruit grow in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 3-20 tiers to a bunch. The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh from 30–50 kg. The fruit averages 125 g, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter content. Each individual fruit (known as a banana or 'finger') has a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with a fleshy edible inner portion. Typically the fruit has numerous strings (called 'phloem bundles') which run between the skin and the edible portion of the banana, and which are commonly removed individually after the skin is removed. Bananas are a valuable source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and potassium.

Bananas are grown in at least 107 countries.[1] In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas that are usually eaten raw. The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains, and are generally used in cooking rather than eaten raw. Bananas may also be dried and eaten as a snack food. Dried bananas are also ground into banana flour.

Although the wild species have fruits with numerous large, hard seeds, virtually all culinary bananas have seedless fruits. Bananas are classified either as dessert bananas (meaning they are yellow and fully ripe when eaten) or as green cooking bananas. Almost all export bananas are of the dessert types; however, only about 10-15% of all production is for export, with the U.S. and EU being the dominant buyers.


Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple and red. Bananas can be eaten raw though some varieties are generally cooked first. Depending upon cultivar and ripeness, the flesh can vary in taste from starchy to sweet, and texture from firm to mushy. Unripe or green bananas and plantains are used for cooking various dishes and are the staple starch of many tropical populations. Banana sap is extremely sticky and can be used as a practical adhesive. Sap can be obtained from either the pseudostem, the fruit peelings, or the from the flesh.

Most production for local sale is of green cooking bananas and plantains, as ripe dessert bananas are easily damaged while being transported to market. Even when only transported within their country of origin, ripe bananas suffer a high rate of damage and loss.

The commercial dessert cultivars most commonly eaten in temperate countries (species Musa acuminata or the hybrid Musa × paradisiaca, a cultigen) are imported in large quantities from the tropics. They are popular in part because being a non-seasonal crop they are available fresh year-round. In global commerce, by far the most important of these banana cultivars is 'Cavendish', which accounts for the vast bulk of bananas exported from the tropics. The Cavendish gained popularity in the 1950s after the previously mass produced cultivar, Gros Michel, became commercially unviable due to Panama disease, a fungus which attacks the roots of the banana plant.


'Cavendish' bananas in a grocery storeThe most important properties making 'Cavendish' the main export banana are related to transport and shelf life rather than taste; major commercial cultivars rarely have a superior flavour compared to the less widespread cultivars. Export bananas are picked green, and then usually ripened in ripening rooms when they arrive in their country of destination. These are special rooms made air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. Bananas can be ordered by the retailer "ungassed", however, and may show up at the supermarket still fully green. While these bananas will ripen more slowly, the flavour will be notably richer, and the banana peel can be allowed to reach a yellow/brown speckled phase, and yet retain a firm flesh inside. Thus, shelf life is somewhat extended. The flavour and texture of bananas are affected by the temperature at which they ripen. Bananas are refrigerated to between 13.5 and 15 °C (57 and 59 °F) during transportation. At lower temperatures, the ripening of bananas permanently stalls, and the bananas will eventually turn grey.

It should be noted that Musa × paradisiaca is also the generic name for the common plantain, a coarser and starchier variant not to be confused with Musa acuminata or the Cavendish variety. Plantains have all but replaced the Cavendish in markets dominated by supply-side logistics.


M. acuminata x balbisiana inflorescence, partially opened.In addition to the fruit, the flower of the banana plant (also known as banana blossom or banana heart) is used in Southeast Asian, Bengali and Kerala (India) cuisine, either served raw with dips or cooked in soups and curries. The tender core of the banana plant's trunk is also used, notably in the Burmese dish mohinga, Bengali and Kerala cooking. Bananas fried with batter is a popular dessert in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Banana fritters can be served with ice-cream as well. Bananas are also eaten deep fried, baked in their skin in a split bamboo, or steamed in glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf in Myanmar where bunches of green bananas surrounding a green coconut in a tray is an important part of traditional offerings to the Buddha and the Nats. The juice extract prepared from the tender core is used to treat kidney stones.

The leaves of the banana are large, flexible, and waterproof; they are used in many ways, including as umbrellas and to wrap food for cooking, carrying and packing cooked foods. In south India, food is traditionally served on banana leaves in homes and some restaurants also follow the practice. Some farmers prefer to grow banana plants only for their leaves. Chinese zongzi (bamboo leaves are more commonly used where available) and Central American tamales are sometimes steamed in banana leaves, and the Hawaiian imu is often lined with them. Puerto Rican "pasteles" are boiled wrapped and tied inside the leaf.

Banana chips are a snack produced from dehydrated or fried banana or, preferably, plantain slices, which have a dark brown colour and an intense banana taste. Bananas have also been used in the making of jam. Unlike other fruits, it is difficult to extract juice from bananas because when compressed a banana simply turns to pulp.

Seeded bananas (Musa balbisiana), considered to be one of the forerunners of the common domesticated banana, are sold in markets in Indonesia.

It is reported that in Orissa, India, juice is extracted from the corm and used as a home remedy for the treatment of jaundice. In other places honey is mixed with mashed banana fruit and used for the same purpose.

Answer 9

a fruit that monkeys eat..................................