''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' is the accepted name for the hybrid between '' Musa acuminata'' and '' Musa balbisiana''. Most cultivated

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", disting ...

s and plantains are triploid

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 ...

s either of this hybrid or of ''M. acuminata'' alone. Linnaeus originally used the name ''M. paradisiaca'' only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, ''Musa sapientum'', is thus a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

of ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca''.

Description

Almost all cultivated plantains and many cultivated bananas are triploid

s of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca''. It is believed that

Southeast Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

farmers first domesticated ''M. acuminata''. When the cultivated plants spread north-west into areas where ''M. balbisiana'' was native (see map), hybrids between the two species occurred and were then developed further into a wide range of cultivars. Hundreds of cultivars of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'' are known, possessing characteristics that are highly variable, but broadly intermediate between the ancestral species. They are typically tall when mature. The above-ground part of the plant is a "false stem" or

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 nu ...

, consisting of leaves and their fused bases. Each pseudostem can produce a single flowering stem. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots may develop from the base of the plant. Cultivars of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'' are usually sterile, without seeds or viable pollen.

Taxonomy

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", disting ...

plants were originally classified by Linnaeus into two species, which he called ''Musa paradisiaca'' for those used as cooking bananas ( plantains), and ''M. sapientum'' for those used as dessert bananas. It was later discovered that both of his "species" were actually cultivated varieties of the hybrid between two wild species, '' M. acuminata'' and '' M. balbisiana'', which is now called ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'' L. The circumscription of the modern

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'' thus includes both the original ''M. paradisiaca'' and ''M. sapientum'', the latter being reduced to a

of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca''. In pre-Linnean times this banana was named '''Musa serapionis''', for instance by Maria Sybilla Merian in her '' Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium'' of 1705. ( plate 12). See also: At one time, to deal with the great diversity of cultivated bananas and plantains, botanists created many other names which are now regarded as synonyms of ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'', such as ''M. corniculata'' Lour., used for a group of plantains with large fruit resembling the horns of a bull. Cultivated varieties are now given cultivar names, with the cultivars classified into groups and subgroups. Thus ''M.'' × ''paradisiaca'' 'Horn' is a cultivar belonging to the AAB genome group, Plantain subgroup. See List of banana cultivars for further information on the naming and classification of cultivars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musa paradisiaca paradisiaca Food plant hybrids