Hands, fingers, and a 100 gram record

A bunch is made of hands, and a hand is made of fingers. That is the everyday geometry of a banana.

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]

A large bunch of ripe yellow bananas hanging downward against a plain background, with several hands of fruit visible — A bunch of ripe bananas, photographed by Mark Schellhase on 31 July 2007 and released into the public domain.Mark Schellhase (Mschel) · Public Domain

USDA FoodData Central lists “Bananas, raw” under FDC ID 173944, with the scientific name Musa acuminata Colla. [USDA FoodData Central] For a 100 g portion, the same record gives 89.0 kcal of energy and 74.91 g of water. [USDA FoodData Central] That 100 g portion has 22.84 g of carbohydrate by difference, 2.6 g of dietary fibre, and 5.38 g of starch. [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] Vitamin B-6 is listed as 0.367 mg per 100 g, and protein as 1.09 g. [USDA FoodData Central]

A single yellow banana on a white background, with a section of peel pulled down to show the pale fruit inside — A single ripe banana, photographed with part of the peel pulled back, by Renee Comet for the National Cancer Institute in 1994.Renee Comet, National Cancer Institute · Public Domain (NIH / NCI)

The USDA figures are for raw bananas, per 100 g. They do not tell you how a green fruit compares with a spotted one; for that change, use the ripening page.

A hand of seven yellow bananas with light brown spots, arranged on a plain white background — A hand of ripe yellow bananas photographed against a white background by Justus Blümer on 15 August 2011.Justus Blümer · CC BY 2.0

Hands, fingers, and a 100 gram record

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