A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant:), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks, but if you look closely, I bet you should be able to see them. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In the case of bananas, they’re a fruit… but not a fruit. Berries are identified as being many seeded with a fleshy inner layer. Despite its name, the strawberry isn't a true berry. Because the fruit is produced from a single ovary on the flower, a banana is actually classified as a berry, botanically speaking. That’s interesting. Bananas are curved due to the fruit growing upwards toward the light and gravity pushing downwards on the growing fruit. Berries! The Banana itself is from the berry family. Both. Some people believe that cutting off the rachis after the last hand of bananas will send more energy to the developing fruits. Yes, you read that right! That’s right — a banana plant is technically a large herb, distantly related to ginger. Among the many trees that grew in my Southern California garden, there was an abundance of bananas flourishing year-round, all in different stages of ripeness. Did you know that what we call a banana tree is not a tree at all? The banana is also a distant cousin to ginger, turmeric, and cardamom, and is botanically classified as a berry. Let’s find out! The seeds are reduced to little specks. But the banana is a berry, scientifically speaking, as are eggplants, grapes and oranges. A banana is both an herb and a fruit. This fruit develops from a single ovary, has a soft yellow outer skin with white flesh inside, full of tiny, black seeds! Although primarily eaten out of hand or in as part of breakfast and desserts, sweet bananas can also be used as an accent in savory dishes. Did you know that a banana is a berry that grows on an herb? As has been made to my attention many people are very ignorant as to accepting these true facts about bananas. I believe the secret to a good life is... Read more. Yes, the banana fruit is a berry. So, the Banana is a fruit, herb and a berry. Although it is often termed as a tree, banana is a plant, more particularly a herbaceous perennial. A banana is considered an herb in botanical terms because it never forms a woody stem (or trunk) the way a tree does. Your doctor is right about that. As the pseudostem grows, these leaves unfurl and fan out at the top. There are no seeds, as modern-day cultivated bananas (like the Cavendish variety sold in stores, or the popular apple bananas and ice cream bananas grown in backyards) are sterile. Is it a berry or something else? The first several rows to be exposed are female flowers that develop into “hands” (or tiers) of bananas, typically with 12 to 20 bananas making up a hand. To fall under the category of fruit, it has to be the reproductive organ, containing seed structure. As the petal-like bracts on the bud begin to open one by one, they reveal double rows of nectar-rich blossoms. . The pseudostem begins as a small shoot from an underground rhizome called a corm. And, believe it or not, bananas don't grow on trees! Bananas Are Botanically Berries As surprising as this may sound, botanically speaking, bananas are considered berries. And, believe it or not, bananas don't grow on trees! You have entered an incorrect email address! Growing Curry Leaves Plant | How to Grow Curry Tree, Best Fertilizer For Cactus | How Often to Fertilize Cactus, Growing Areca Palm Indoors | How to Grow Areca Palm, 11 Upcoming 2021 Gardening Trends That You Must Check Out, 20 Practical Indoor Window Shelf Ideas for Plants, 6 Potent Indoor Palm Benefits Proven in Studies, 30 Pictures of Houseplants With Vintage Style Décor, 25 Amazing Things To Do With Terracotta Pots (Other Than Planting). It grows upward as a single stalk with a tight spiral of leaf sheaths wrapped around it. They will be back next year. Bananas are also full of essential antioxidant flavonoids that help in reducing risks of heart disease. Layers upon layers of bracts and flowers fall off every day, leaving behind a long, knobby, bare fruit stem called a rachis. In warm climates (USDA zones 10 and higher), banana plants are non-seasonal and fruit year-round. Cold-tolerant varieties of bananas (I know, that sounds like an oxymoron for a tropical plant) can survive just above freezing, but the pseudostems die to the ground in winter. Bananas are one of the most popular fruits in the world! Despite its name, the strawberry isn't a true berry. Let them grow outside if you like…in the ground. 1.... © 2020 Balcony Garden Web | All rights reserved, Is Banana a Herb | Is Banana a Fruit or a Berry, Check out our article on growing bananas in containers, Is coconut a nut? According to Stanford University it’s not just that the banana plant is technically an herb — the banana fruit is also technically a berry. I actually really enjoyed this article. During the flowering stage, an inflorescence (also called a banana heart, as it emerges from the heart of the plant) appears on the end of the stem. If you never remove or transplant the shoots, they end up growing in clusters and give the appearance of a large, mature tree. I didn’t know much about bananas other than the plants themselves are struggling with disease and disappearing. I was eating a banana and when I read the bit about the fruit being produced from an ovary… I’m just not going to eat it anymore. You just have to make sure the location is the one you like and won’t disturb. I wonder if that's where the saying "going bananas" comes from. Therefore, to a botanist, banana is an herb. Step 1 : Introduction to the question "The Banana Plant Is Classified As A Herb. Yes, you can put them outdoors when all threat of frost is passed. Fun Fact: Banana plant dies after fruiting. When cold weather arrives just cut them down to the ground. If you cut a banana in lengthwise, in the center, you will notice very tiny black 'seeds'. However, people with high blood sugar levels or type 2 diabetes should avoid taking a large quantity of ripened bananas. We moved from California to Oregon last year, and brought one of our banana babies with us. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguishing them from dessert bananas. It also positions low to medium on the glycemic index (GI). Musa velutina (hardy to zone 7b) and Musa basjoo (hardy to zone 5, though it won’t flower when it’s that cold) are two such varieties that will send up new shoots in spring when the weather warms up again, as long as the corm is heavily mulched and protected. A banana is the common name for a type of fruit and also the name for the herbaceous plants that grow it. This post updated from an article that originally appeared on December 14, 2011. It belongs to the genus MUSA. But, have you ever wondered–Is Banana a Herb, or is it a fruit? 57 likes. The plant in which the banana grows on is in fact an herb, not a tree. It gets cold here about now. There are hundreds of varieties of bananas in the world, but the one that makes the news a lot is the common supermarket cultivar Cavendish, which is at greatest risk of infection because of its lack of genetic biodiversity. A hanging cluster of hands on a banana plant is called a bunch, with each bunch holding 7 to 14 hands of bananas. How fun would that be to have bananas amid my conifers and aspens? Or is it a fruit? Daily intake of 1-2 bananas makes you feel full and simultaneously reduces the appetite. The second year plants will put out a rachis and form the fruit hands. A banana is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks. 11 Vegetables You Grow That You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, Arab slave traders who also traded bananas, Choco Banana Date Cookies (aka Breakfast in a Bite), Baked Banana Donuts with Chocolate Hazelnut Glaze, Dollar Store Deals: Secrets to Scoring Cheap Seed Starting Supplies, Make the Best Seed Starting Mix for Dirt Cheap (It's Organic Too). Find out. Banana contains resistant starch and pectin that help in controlling blood sugar. They produce multiple layers of leaves, wrapped around, forming a stem, which is 12-16 inches thick and 30-40 feet tall. Learn more bizarre botanical facts about this misunderstood tropical perennial plant. Bananas are bred as parthenocarpic plants and don’t require any pollination to produce fruit. While most people think of basil, parsley, or rosemary when they think of herbs, it’s easier to see how a banana can be an herb if we look at more “exotic” herbs like lemongrass, horseradish, and wasabi. But the plants grow to about 15-20 feet and are the centerpiece to our back yard and gardens. ), Related: 11 Vegetables You Grow That You Didn’t Know You Could Eat. Here are some of the health benefits they have on offer! The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook is my latest book. Check them out in this article! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. There are over 100 varieties of banana, some of those are Bananas are susceptible to fungal diseases, like many plants are, but they are far from disappearing. Yes! Although it is often termed as a tree, banana is a plant, more particularly a herbaceous perennial. Neither is the raspberry or the blackberry. The pseudostem begins as a small shoot from an underground rhizome called a corm. The banana fruit we eat is actually a modified berry. Bananas are packed with a fair amount of proteins, carbs, fiber, and minerals like potassium, vitamin B6 and C. They also contain essential neurotransmitter dopamine and catechin. While the banana plant is colloquially called a banana tree, it’s actually an herb distantly related to ginger, since the plant has a succulent tree stem, instead of a wood one. Herbal Qualities. A good work friend gifted us with a single corm (baby plant) three years ago and that one has multiplied into several more. lol =). Bananas are a berry and a herb but not a tree or shrub. The category a fruit falls … Or that a banana is And banana fulfills all these qualities! It grows upward as a single stalk with a tight spiral of leaf sheaths wrapped around it. But from a botanist’s standpoint, whether something is an herb or not is about the plant, not the fruit. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. I went out to the grove and cut down all my banana plants, covered them with wheat straw, followed by a tarp weighted down by the cut trunks. All Rights Reserved. So, bananas are berries and raspberries aren't. Banana plants do not have a supporting, wooden trunk. This makes banana, a herb, as its stem does not contain actual woody tissues. Rather, it forms a succulent stalk, or pseudostem. Now that I’m in Central Oregon, I’m entertaining the idea of growing bananas again in my landscape. Berries are identified as being many seeded with a fleshy inner layer. A banana is considered an herb in botanical terms because it never forms a woody stem (or trunk) the way a tree does. They’re a staple in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisines and commonly found in the produce aisles of those markets in the United States. Bananas are actually a herb, and other fun fruit facts. So, the Banana is a fruit, herb and a berry. They’re fragile for their size and shred easily, resulting in the feathery fronds we usually associate with banana palms. Although it is often termed as a tree, banana is a plant, more particularly a herbaceous perennial. Bananas can be classified as a fruit and also a herb. If you don’t want to fuss with them in a short or cold growing season, bananas can be kept as houseplants and may even produce fruit if given ample sun and warmth. What seeds they used to have are now barely flecks in the flesh. But no, they're actually considered a berry, too—with one, giant seed. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring — all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. The GI value of an unripe banana is approx 30, whereas a ripe banana comes at 60, and the average is 51. Is Banana a Herb or a Tree?- Banana is a Herb. These prebiotic nutrients assist the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. Ready to have your best garden ever in 2021? Several shoots (or pups) emerge from the base of the old pseudostem and become new plants that also flower, fruit, die, and spur the next set of shoots. Bananas are affluent in potassium and antioxidants that encourage heart health and maintain blood pressure. The Banana tree trunk is a false stem formed by tightly wrapped leaf sheaths. Linda, that was a great explanation of bananas. A berry is a simple fruit having a skin surrounding one or more seeds in a fleshy pulp. (And to quash that misnomer, bananas are not related to palm trees either.). According to Herb Society of America, an herb has, among other things, potential medicinal and health benefits and industrial and economic uses. To be considered a berry, the ‘fruit’ has to be developed from a single ovary with a soft exocarp and fleshy mesocarp, with an endocarp containing one or more seeds. Wow, I never thought about bananas surviving a frost. So, technically a banana is a berry. So, technically a banana is a berry. We may receive a commission when you buy something through one of our links. The banana plant is called a 'banana tree' in popular use, but it's technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or 'herb'), not a tree, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue. Rather, it forms a succulent stalk, or pseudostem. All fruits are actually mature ovaries LOL! Over the course of a year, the stalk gradually pushes its way out from the center of the pseudostem and terminates in a large, flowering, fruit-bearing bud called an inflorescence. Banana is biologically a Herbecious flowering plant. This might come as a surprise to most of you, but bananas are berries! I’ve tried this several times and eventually just left the rachis on, since I never noticed a difference in the size or quality of my bananas whenever I trimmed the rachis. The banana plant, however, is an herb because it does not have a trunk, branches or woody tissues. It’s currently living indoors as a houseplant. I’m also learning how attractive flowering plants are. It implies that banana consumption would not result in a significant rise in blood sugar levels in non-diabetic individuals. Garden Betty independently selects products to feature on this site. Thank you! As per Large analysis of several studies, daily intake of 1.4-1.6 gms of potassium lowers the risk of heart ailments by 26%. Banana plants do not have a supporting, wooden trunk. Happy gardening! Many, if not most, herbs have fruit, including the banana tree. They produce multiple layers of leaves, wrapped around, forming a stem, which is 12-16 inches thick and 30-40 feet tall. This attribute makes them one of the largest ‘herbs’ on the planet. … The infant banana plants (suckers/pups) grow from the base of the parent plant and form a new tree, ready to bear the next round of bananas! This makes banana, a herb, as its stem does not contain actual woody tissues. A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks. They are loaded with antioxidants and also are a rich source of potassium, pectin, fiber, magnesium, vitamin B6 and C. You can eat this nutritious fruit raw or add in pancakes or smoothies, the choice is yours! I’m not much of a banana person (unless it’s cooked in rum and butter, though that combo will make anything taste divine), but I loved having banana trees around when I lived in zone 10b. Is a Banana a fruit or an herb? Each of these shoots (pseudostems) goes on to live for only two to three years, but because the corm can survive for many years, the banana plant’s reproductive process is unique for a fruit. 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