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Edible banana

Musa acuminata

Also called Cavendish Banana, Chinese Banana, Wild Banana, Banana, Dwarf Banana, Apple Bananas

In Singapore: Blood Banana, 美叶芭蕉 (Grown in Singapore)

Edible banana
Photo: Miya.m, CC BY-SA 3.0

Musa acuminata is the wild ancestor of most modern dessert bananas, a herbaceous perennial with a false trunk made of leaf sheaths rather than a true tree. It grows best in warm, humid, wet tropical conditions.

Family
Musaceae (Banana family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep the soil consistently moist and water generously during active growth; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Deep, fertile, well-drained loam rich in organic matter.
Temperature
20–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic. Not toxic to cats or dogs (ASPCA).
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Trop. & Subtrop. Asia
Climate
wet tropical

About

Musa acuminata is a species of banana native to Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are derived from this species, although some are hybrids with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 8000 BCE, it is one of the earlier examples of domesticated plants.

Where it grows

Musa acuminata is native to the biogeographical region of Malesia and most of mainland Indochina.

Other Musa plants

Musa ×alinsanaya · Bulada Banana · Banana · Japanese Banana · Pisang Tajak · Scarlet Banana · Giant Highland Banana · Flowering Banana · Laterite Banana · Javanese Wild Banana · Abacá · Fe'i banana

[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Musa acuminata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.

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