A short banana list

The plant: The banana plant is a large perennial herb with leaf sheaths that form trunk-like pseudostems. [CTAHR]
Fruit: Each bunch consists of a variable number of “hands” along a central stem, and each hand consists of two transverse rows of fruits, or “fingers”. [CTAHR] Fruits mature in about 60 to 90 days after flowers first appear. [CTAHR]
Ripening: The optimum conditions for ripening bananas, says CTAHR, are temperatures of 68 to 70 degrees F and 90% relative humidity. [CTAHR] As the fruit ripens, sugar content increases while starch content decreases. [CTAHR]
Cavendish: FAO says Cavendish bananas dominate international trade and are the most widely consumed banana variety globally. [FAO]
Gros Michel: Gros Michel, FAO writes, used to dominate global exports until the 1950s, when widespread epidemics of Fusarium Race 1 (Foc R1) eliminated it from large-scale commercial production and the Cavendish subgroup became the new industry standard. [FAO]
TR4: The same guidelines say TR4 infects most banana and plantain varieties including the Cavendish, which provides around 50 percent of global banana production. [FAO] The spores of the fungus, FAO notes, could survive in the soil for decades. [FAO]
Nutrition, 100 g raw: For a 100 g portion, the same record gives 89.0 kcal of energy and 74.91 g of water. [USDA FoodData Central] Potassium is listed as 358.0 mg per 100 g, with 27.0 mg of magnesium and 8.7 mg of vitamin C. [USDA FoodData Central]

For the comparisons, use the ripening-and-cultivar desk.

Sources on this page