When is a banana not a banana?
Published in Daily Trivia
When they're actually plantains. Banana is the common name used for herbaceous plants in the genus Musa, which because of their size and structure, are often mistaken for trees. Bananas are cultivated for their fruit (techincally berries, since the plant is a herb) which bear the same name, and to a lesser extent as ornamental plants. Globally, bananas rank fourth after rice, wheat and maize in human food production; they are grown in 130 countries worldwide, more than any other fruit crop. In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to the soft, sweet "dessert" bananas that are usually eaten raw. The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit, generally used in cooking rather than eaten raw, are typically known as plantains.
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