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lemon bananas

The banana is an edible fruit, botanically a berry,[2][3] produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in thegenus Musa.[4] In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edibleparthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata ×M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used.

 

 

Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea.[5][6] They are grown in at least 107 countries,[7] primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wineand banana beer and as ornamental plants.

 

 

Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between "bananas" and "plantains". Especially in the Americas and Europe, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called "plantains". In other regions, such asSoutheast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the simple twofold distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.

 

 

The term "banana" is also used as the common name for the plants which produce the fruit.[4] This can extend to other members of the genus Musa like the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), pink banana (Musa velutina) and the Fe'i bananas. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, like the snow banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana (Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are classified under the banana family, Musaceae.

 

 

More Portugal here :

www.flickr.com/photos/23502939@N02/albums/72157626640111149

 

 

more candids here :

 

 

www.flickr.com/photos/23502939@N02/sets/72157622769131641

 

 

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Uploaded on December 13, 2015
Taken on April 10, 2010