Cardava bananas, also spelled cardaba or kardaba, is a

triploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

(

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

)

banana 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, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

originating from the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It is primarily a

cooking banana Cooking bananas are banana cultivars in the genus ''Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking. They may be eaten ripe or unripe and are generally starchy. Many cooking bananas are referred to as plantains (/ˈplæntɪn/, /plænˈteɪn/ ...

, though it can also be eaten raw. It is commonly confused with the more ubiquitous and closely related

saba banana Saba banana (pron. or ), is a triploid hybrid (ABB) banana cultivar originating from the Philippines. It is primarily a cooking banana, though it can also be eaten raw. It is one of the most important banana varieties in Philippine cuisine. It ...

because they are used identically in traditional

Filipino cuisine Filipino cuisine ( fil, lutong Pilipino/pagkaing Pilipino) is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct ethnolinguistic groups found throughout the Philippine archipelago. A majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that compose Fi ...

. Their common names can be interchanged in everyday usage though they are different cultivars.

Description

Like saba bananas, cardava bananas have very large and robust

pseudostem A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

s, growing up to a height of , and a diameter of . It takes around 339 days to flower, and 479 days for the fruits to be ready to harvest. Each bunch contains around 150 fruits in 9 hands. The fruits are distinctively larger than saba bananas and have a rounder more pentagonal cross-section. They are typically harvested while unripe since they are used as

s, but they can be eaten as is if allowed to ripen.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

Kardaba_(cardaba)_bananas_(Cebu,_Philippines)

The cardava banana a triploid (

) hybrid of the seeded bananas ''

Musa balbisiana ''Musa balbisiana'', also known simply as plantain, is a wild-type species of banana. It is one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas, along with ''Musa acuminata''. Description It grows lush leaves in clumps with a more upright habit th ...

'' and ''

Musa acuminata ''Musa acuminata'' is a species of banana native to South Asia, Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are from this species, although some are hybrids with ''Mus ...

''. It was formerly believed to be a triploid ''M. balbisiana'' cultivar (BBB), which is now known to be incorrect. Its official designation is ''Musa acuminata'' × ''balbisiana'' (ABB Group) 'Cardava'. Cardava bananas are also spelled as "cardaba" or "kardaba" in Philippine languages. It is also known as ''pisang chematu'' or ''pisang kepok besar'' in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and ''chuối mật'' in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Uses

Cardava bananas are used in the same way as saba bananas in

. However they are deemed more suitable for processing into

banana chips Banana chips (sometimes called banana crisps) are deep-fried or dried, generally crispy slices of bananas. They are usually made from firmer, starchier banana varieties ("cooking bananas" or plantains) like the Saba and Nendran cultivars. They ...

due to their larger fruit sizes.

Pests and diseases

Cardava bananas are highly resistant to black sigatoka ('' Mycosphaerella fifiensis''). However it is vulnerable to the "''bugtok''" disease which causes the fruit pulp to harden and become inedible.

References

External links