Did you know?
Bananas are a very familiar sight and most homes will have bananas in the fruit bowl, but do you really know much about them?
Bananas do not grow on trees!
The banana plant is actually a giant herb, of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.
The "trunk" of a banana plant is not made of wood
It consists only of tightly overlapping leaves (a bit like a leek). The leaves of a banana plant can grow up to 3 metres in length & 70 centimetres in width.
Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant
Even in tropical growing areas, bananas for domestic consumption are cut green and stored in a shady place to ripen slowly.
Bananas are available all year round
They are harvested every day of the year.
The Banana is used as a food wrap
In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in the place of plastic bags and cling wraps), providing a unique flavour and aroma to dishes such as Indian banana leaf rice.
India is the world’s largest banana producer
To the Indians the flower from the banana plant is sacred. During religious and important ceremonies such as weddings, banana flowers are tied around the head for good luck.
The word "banana" ......
Comes from the Arabic word "banan", meaning finger.
Why do athletes eat bananas?
Many world-class athletes - such as professional tennis players, footballers and cyclists - include bananas in their training diets to boost their energy and stamina. Bananas are also high in potassium - useful in avoiding muscle cramp.
The Blue Label
Fyffes first consignment of bananas arrived in Britain in September 1888. The now famous Fyffes Blue Label was introduced in 1929 - the first fruit to be labelled in this way.
Encircle the globe
If you laid all the bananas grown in a year end-to-end, they would encircle the globe more than 200 times!
Shipwrecked
A shipwrecked sailor was rescued in the best of health after surviving on bananas for a whole month.
The energy fruit
Bananas are known as the energy fruit because they provide a quick-but-sustained energy boost in a natural, nutritious and easily digestible form. A medium sized banana contains only 95 calories