Elephants like to eat bananas, but they don't usually peel them first in the way humans do. A new report published in the journal Current Biology on April 10, however, shows that one very special Asian elephant named Pang ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 10, 2023
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695
(Phys.org)—A small team of researchers working at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University has found evidence that chimps are able to use gestures to convey distance to a person. In their paper published in the ...
Scientists at the University of Maryland have a new recipe for batteries: Bake a leaf, and add sodium. They used a carbonized oak leaf, pumped full of sodium, as a demonstration battery's negative terminal, or anode, according ...
Energy & Green Tech
Jan 28, 2016
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358
There's some truth to the effectiveness of folk remedies and old wives' tales when it comes to serious medical issues, according to findings by a team from Detroit Medical Center.
Other
Sep 19, 2014
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2
A potent new inhibitor of HIV, derived from bananas, may open the door to new treatments to prevent sexual transmission of HIV, according to a University of Michigan Medical School study published this week.
Biochemistry
Mar 15, 2010
4
1
Bananas are one of the most popular and widely consumed fruits in the world. They are also the fourth most grown crop in the world, trailing only rice, wheat and corn. What could this tropical fruit have to do with fighting ...
Polymers
Feb 16, 2024
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67
Orange, starchy sweet potatoes are great mashed, cut into fries or just roasted whole. But you likely haven't considered grinding them into a flour and baking them into your next batch of cookies—or at least, not yet. Recent ...
Analytical Chemistry
Feb 13, 2023
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111
Exeter scientists have provided hope in the fight to control Panama disease in bananas.
Agriculture
Oct 21, 2022
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30
Bananas are thought to have been first domesticated by people 7,000 years ago on the island of New Guinea. But the domestication history of bananas is complicated, while their classification is hotly debated, as boundaries ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 7, 2022
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1058
The banana borer Cosmopolites sordidus and the disease Fusarium wilt, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum, are among the most harmful pests that threaten the livelihoods of banana growers, who face major challenges ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 28, 2022
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Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red.
Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana or hybrids Musa acuminata × balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific names Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca are no longer used.
Banana is also used to describe Enset and Fe'i bananas, neither of which belong to the aforementioned species. Enset bananas belong to the genus Ensete while the taxonomy of Fe'i-type cultivars is uncertain.
In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains or "cooking bananas". The distinction is purely arbitrary and the terms 'plantain' and 'banana' are sometimes interchangeable depending on their usage.
They are native to tropical South and Southeast Asia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. Today, they are cultivated throughout the tropics. They are grown in at least 107 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and as ornamental plants.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
