Bananas belong to the most popular and most eaten fruits in the world. They were first grown in tropical India and Southeast Asia over 4000 years ago. Arab merchants brought them to northern Africa and the Middle East.
Portuguese navigators discovered bananas when they sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa.  From there they were brought to the Canary Islands, from where Spaniards took them to the New World.

 

Physical Features of a Banana Plant
Although bananas grow like trees they are actually plants. They are made up of stalks that are covered with overlapping leaves. A stalk or stem can be about 30 cm thick. A banana plant can grow up to 6 meters in height. It has up to 20 long and wide leaves.
Bananas hang in clusters, also called hands, from the plant. Each cluster can carry about 10 to 20 bananas.
Bananas need good, well-drained soils, as well as a warm tropical climate with enough rainfall to grow. They are often cultivated on plantations, often with hundreds of workers who cultivate and harvest bananas for the world market. These large farms sell their products to large companies like, Chiquita and Dole.
The first banana fruits can grow about a year after planting. Bananas are endangered by temperatures below zero and strong winds. Diseases, like the Panama disease, an infection of the soil, can completely destroy banana crops.