A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. 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 have a variety of colors when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most cultivated bananas are M. acuminata, M. balbisiana, or hybrids of the two.
Fruits of four different cultivars. Left to right: plantain, red banana, apple banana, and Cavendish banana
A corm, about 25 cm (10 in) across
Young plant
Female flowers have petals at the tip of the ovary
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Various fruits arranged at a stall at the Municipal Market of São Paulo
Fresh fruit mix of blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries
An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as culinary vegetables, including corn (maize), tomatoes, and various squash
Pomegranate fruit – whole and piece with arils
