Bananas - a berry

Such a thing as a banana tree, does not exist. Banana plant - is, in fact, a giant grass and banana - its fruit. By definition, a berry - a "soft, juicy fruit containing several seeds».

A grass - is "a plant with fleshy, but woody stems that after the plant will bloom and seed, dies down to the ground." However, this definition is not always true: for example, the sage, thyme and rosemary stalk just the type of wood (though not covered by this bark).

Thus, after the portion of flowering herb that is above the ground dies. In the case of bananas, we are dealing with a very unusual effect. After the death of the stem a little further on the vine starts to grow another. Thus, in a few years the plant as it "passes" half-meter-meter.

Banana came to us from Malaysia, where it is grown for over 10 thousand. Years. Wild bananas, which are still to be found in Southeast Asia, contain large, hard seeds and the very small amount of pulp. They are pollinated by bats.

Bananas from your supermarket - a cultivar selected planters for their fleshy pulp and no seeds. Cultivation of the plant made it sweet, tasty, but sterile: a banana is not able to reproduce without human assistance.

Most of the banana plant does not engage in "sex" is already 10 thousand. Years. Almost all of bananas, which we are so pleased we eat, propagated manually from escaping existing plants whose gene pool has not been updated as much as 100 centuries. As a consequence, the banana is extremely susceptible to various diseases. Many of his views have fallen victim to such fungal infections as "Black Sigatoka" and "Panama disease", very resistant to fungicides. And if in the near future will not be displayed genetically modified variety, we can forget about bananas.

The problem is, by the way, is very serious. Bananas are the world's most profitable export crop. Branch worth 12 billion dollars a year and supports 400 million people, many of whom live below the poverty line.

Most bananas come from tropical countries, however, paradoxically, the largest European producer of bananas is Iceland. Bananas are grown in large greenhouses heated by geothermal waters, just two degrees south of the Arctic Circle.

Source: www.bustersmyth.ru

via factroom.ru