Cavendish banana
Encyclopedia
The Dwarf Cavendish banana (or simply Cavendish banana) is a banana
Banana
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....
cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
originally from Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. It became the primary replacement for the Gros Michel banana in the 1950s after crops of the latter were devastated by the Panama disease
Panama disease
Panama disease, a Fusarium wilt, is a banana plant disease caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. The fungus attacks the roots of the banana plant. The disease is resistant to fungicide and cannot be controlled chemically.-History:...
. The name 'Dwarf Cavendish' is in reference to the height of the pseudostem, not the fruit (which are medium sized). It is one of the most commonly planted banana variety from the Cavendish group, and the main source of commercial Cavendish bananas along with Grand Nain.
Taxonomy and nomenclature
The Cavendish banana is a triploid (AAA) cultivar of Musa acuminataMusa acuminata
Musa acuminata is a species of wild banana native to Southeast Asia. It is the progenitor of modern edible bananas, along with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 8000 years ago, it is one of the earliest examples of domesticated plants.-Taxonomy and nomenclature:Musa acuminata...
.
Its accepted name
Banana cultivar groups
Almost all modern edible banana and plantain cultivars are hybrids and polyploids of the wild, seeded bananas Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. They are almost always seedless and hence sterile, so they are propagated vegetatively...
is Musa acuminata Colla (AAA Group) cv. 'Dwarf Cavendish'.
Synonyms
Synonym (taxonomy)
In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...
include:
- Musa acuminata Colla (Cavendish Group) cv. 'Dwarf Cavendish'
- Musa x paradisiaca L. cultigroup Dwarf Cavendish
- Musa cavendishii Lambert & Paxton var. nana
- Musa acuminata L. A. Colla
- Musa nana J. de Loureiro (name accepted at Mobot)
- Musa nana auct. non J. de Loureiro
- Musa chinensis R. Sweet
- Musa sinensis P. A. Sagot ex J. G. Baker
- Musa sinensis P. A. Sagot
- Musa sinensis R. Sweet ex P. A. Sagot
The fruit of other cultivars from the Cavendish group (AAA) are also often called 'Cavendish' bananas. Especially the Grand Nain cultivar (also known as Chiquita banana). Other cultivars belonging to the group include the Giant Cavendish (also known as Williams), Red Dacca
Red banana
Red bananas, also known as Red Dacca bananas in Australia, are a variety of banana with reddish-purple skin. They are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana. When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color. They are also softer and sweeter than the yellow...
, Masak Hijau, and Robusta. See Banana Cultivar AAA Group.
Cavendish bananas are named in honour of William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire KG, PC , styled Marquess of Hartington until 1811, was a British peer, courtier and Whig politician...
, who acquired an early specimen, and from whose hothouses the cultivars were developed for commercial exploitation worldwide.
Other common names include Klue Hom Kom, Pisang serendah, Chinese banana, and Canary banana.
Description
Cavendish plants grow up to a height of only 6 – 8 ft (1.8 - 2.4 m). The leaves are broad with short petioles. Its shortness makes it stable, wind-resistant, and easier to manage. This, in addition to its fast growth rate, makes it ideal for plantation cultivation. An easily recognizable characteristic of this cultivar is that the male bracts and flowers are not shed.The fruits of the Cavendish bananas range from about 15 to 25 cm in length, and are thin skinned. Each plant can bear up to 90 fingers.
Uses
The fruits of the Cavendish bananas are used in baking, fruit saladFruit salad
Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, served in a liquid, either in their own juices or a syrup. When served as an appetizer or as a dessert, a fruit salad is sometimes known as a fruit cocktail or fruit cup...
s, fruit compote
Compote
Compote is a dessert originating from 17th century France made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup. Whole fruits are immersed in water and with sugar and spices added to the dish, over gentle heat. The syrup may be seasoned with vanilla, lemon or orange peel, cinnamon sticks or powder,...
s, and to complement foods. The outer skin is partially green when sold in food markets, and turns yellow when it ripens. When overripe, the skin turns black and the flesh becomes mushy. Bananas ripen naturally and are at their peak ripeness when the peel is all yellow with a few dark brown specks beginning to appear.
The PLUs used for Cavendish bananas are 4011 (yellow) and 4186 (small yellow). Cavendish bananas may also be sold under the retailer assigned PLUs 4237 and 4238.
History of cultivation
Cavendish bananas entered the world market through populations that have existed in the Canary IslandsCanary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
since the fifteenth century. They were first imported into England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by Thomas Fyffe
Fyffes
-History:In the 1870s Thomas Fyffe, a London food wholesaler, went into partnership with a fruit dealer named Hudson who had connections in the Canary Islands. In 1878 they shipped their first cargo of bananas to England. Within five years the business had become so successful that they purchased...
. They were later determined to be originally from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
by William Spencer Cavendish's
William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire KG, PC , styled Marquess of Hartington until 1811, was a British peer, courtier and Whig politician...
gardener, Sir Joseph Paxton
Joseph Paxton
Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.-Early life:...
. They entered commercial production in 1903 but didn't gain prominence until later when Panama disease
Panama disease
Panama disease, a Fusarium wilt, is a banana plant disease caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. The fungus attacks the roots of the banana plant. The disease is resistant to fungicide and cannot be controlled chemically.-History:...
attacked the dominant Gros Michel ("Big Mike") variety in the 1950s. Because it was successfully grown in the same soils as previously affected Gros Michel plants, many presumed the Cavendish cultivar was more resistant to Panama disease.
Contrary to this notion, in mid-2008, reports from Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
and Malaysia suggest Cavendish-like cultivars may be vulnerable to Panama disease. Because cultivated bananas are spread by conventional vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
rather than through sexual reproduction, the Cavendish plants are genetically identical and cannot evolve
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
disease resistance
Disease resistance in fruit and vegetables
There are a number of lines of defence against pests and diseases in the organic garden, principal among these being the practice of good husbandry, creating healthy soil and ensuring high standards of garden hygiene...
. As there is currently no effective fungicide against Panama disease, some have speculated about a future where Cavendish cultivars are not usable for farming. In such a scenario, a separate cultivar may be developed as a replacement (as happened with the Gros Michel).
The Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research
Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research
Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research , , is a not-for-profit research facility in San Pedro Sula, Cortés, Honduras which seeks to develop new disease-resistant breeds of banana and plantain, as well as...
(FHIA) has been cross breeding wild banana types for decades, and has already created new banana varieties that are resistant to the Panama disease. However, the first new varieties have a distinct apple flavor, while otherwise being very similar to the Cavendish in look and handling. The FHIA-01 "Goldfinger
Goldfinger banana
The Goldfinger banana is a banana cultivar developed in Honduras. The cultivar, developed at the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research by a team of scientists led by Phillip Rowe and Franklin Rosales, has been bred to be pest-resistant and crop-yielding.- Taxonomy :The FHIA-01...
" was registered as a patent in 1994 (US Patent PP08983) and the FHIA-03 "Sweetheart" variety is already cultivated in Cuba.
See also
- BananaBananaBanana 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....
- Banana Cultivar GroupsBanana cultivar groupsAlmost all modern edible banana and plantain cultivars are hybrids and polyploids of the wild, seeded bananas Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. They are almost always seedless and hence sterile, so they are propagated vegetatively...
- Grand Nain
- Gros Michel banana
- MusaMusa (genus)Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae; it includes bananas and plantains. There are over 50 species of Musa with a broad variety of uses....
- Musa acuminataMusa acuminataMusa acuminata is a species of wild banana native to Southeast Asia. It is the progenitor of modern edible bananas, along with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 8000 years ago, it is one of the earliest examples of domesticated plants.-Taxonomy and nomenclature:Musa acuminata...
External links
- Battling for Bananas (Panama disease and the Cavendish)
- Can This Fruit Be Saved? (June 2005 Popular SciencePopular SciencePopular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
article) - Urban Legends Reference Pages: Food (Banana Peal) (Snopes article on banana disease)
- Banana Nutrition Information & Label (August 2009)
- Yes, We Will Have No Bananas (June 2008 New York Times article on Panama Disease potentially affecting the Cavendish banana)