[History] How the first banana tree is planted ?

The first banana is believed to have come from either Malaysia or Papua New Guinea. Scientists have provided evidence that bananas date as far back as 5000 BC and possibly even 8000 BC, and some believe that the banana was the earth's first fruit.

 The banana as we know it today is far different from the original plant from the wild which contained plenty of large, hard seeds with very little tasty flesh. Back in 600 BC, Buddhist Pali texts referred to Indian traders travelling through the Malaysian region and tasting this curious fruit and brought these fruits north, back to India with them. Several years later in 327 BC, when Alexander The Great and his army invaded India, he discovered banana crops existing in the Indian Valleys.

 After tasting this unusual fruit for the first time, he introduced this new discovery to the Western world. The health benefits of bananas were discovered very early on in history in 23 BC. During that spring, the first Roman emperor, Octavius Augustus, became severely ill. Augustus' physician, Antonius Musa cured him from his deathbed with cold compresses using Musa, the plant group bananas come from. Antonius Musa became instantly famous for curing the emperor, thus having the genus named after him. By 200 AD, the goodness of bananas had spread to China. According to the Chinese historian Yang Fu, bananas only ever grew in the southern region of China.
They were never really popular until the 20th Century as they were considered some sort of strange and exotic alien fruit. About 450 years later in 650 AD, Islamic conquerors that were engaged in slave trading, also traded ivory and abundant crops of bananas. These slave traders reached Madagascar, an island off the south eastern coast of Africa, and the African mainland bringing bananas with them. Bananas only became pleasantly edible when an unknown person in Africa is believed to have intervened by crossing two varieties of wild bananas, the Musa Acuminata and the Musa Baalbisiana. From this process, some bananas became seedless and more like the bananas we eat today.
 Most historians believe that the Arabian slave traders are the ones who gave the banana its popular name. The bananas that originated from Southeast Asia were not the eight-to-twelve-inch size that we are familiar with today. They were small, about as long as an adult finger, hence the name “banan”, Arabic for finger. With the expanding slave trade, bananas eventually reached Guinea, on the West Coast of Africa. By 1402, Portuguese sailors discovered bananas in the African continent and established their first banana plantations in the Canary lslands.

 From here, banana rootstocks were packed onto a ship under the charge of Portuguese Franciscan monk Tomas de Berlanga, who took them to the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo in 1516. The banana subsequently became popular throughout the Caribbean and Central America. The Spaniards, who saw a similarity to their native plane tree, gave the plantain its Spanish name, platano. This gave the name to the modern day Plantains, which are typically used for cooking.
 The unripe plantain, commonly steamed or boiled, resembles the taste of a potato. However, when plantains are ripe, they can be eaten raw like a banana, and have a starchy but sweet flavour. Some like to use the term “plantain variety” to describe the different variations of “bananas” or “plantains”. The variety of plantain that is well known to us today is the Cavendish.

Originally grown by Lord Cavendish, the 7th Duke of Devonshire who had bananas hand delivered to him, he grew them on the Isle of Mauritius and two plants in his conservatory . He is attributed with crossing various species resulting in the seedless, fleshy fruit which is known today as the Cavendish banana. They later grew in the Kew Gardens of England where they still are today. In 1840, missionaries transported some of his plants to the South Pacific, where they flourished.

Later, a missionary John Williams, imported bananas into Fiji. In the 1870s, sugar cane plantation owners in Queensland, imported and exploited sugar cane cutters (Kanakas) from Fiji, who brought back some banana plants with them. In 1891, from this crop, Herman Reich started plantations in Coffs Harbour and surrounding areas, New South Wales, Australia which continue to contribute to Australia’s modern day banana industry. Bananas were officially introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Before that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing ships as sailors took a few stems home after travelling in the Caribbean.

 Although originally native to Southeast Asia and New Guinea, bananas are grown in at least 107 countries in the world today. In fact bananas, eaten raw in its yellow form and cooked green bananas, are the main staple of many African populations. Boiled or baked green bananas can also be found in many Caribbean Island recipes. India is by far the largest world producer of bananas, growing 16.8 million tonnes annually, over 20 percent of the world’s total output.

This is followed by Brazil, which produced 7.1 million tonnes of bananas annually. Today, bananas are the world’s fifth most traded crop commodity by volume. With all of the uses of the banana plant, and bananas general good taste, it is no wonder that bananas have become one of the world’s most popular fruits. Where else can one get so much delicious taste and healthy benefits from one source? Source:australianbananas.com.au