Banana Bunch and Flower Stalk
by Catherine Sherman
Title
Banana Bunch and Flower Stalk
Artist
Catherine Sherman
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
"Banana Bunch and Flower Stalk" by Catherine Sherman.
It's not unusual to find banana plants with a full bunch of bananas in the gardens of Kauai, Hawaii. This plant was growing on the grounds of the house where we stayed. Too bad we had to leave paradise before the bananas were ready to eat. We left behind some avocados, too. You can't take them off of the island with you, unfortunately.
Called the Garden Island, Kauai can be said to be Hawaii's most scenic island, because of its spectacular mountains, Waimea Canyon and lush vegetation. Kauai is also the oldest among the Hawaiian islands (scientists estimate it to be 5.1 million years old) with plenty of rainfall on many parts of the island.
The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant with the scientific name of Musa. The above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem. When a banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike or inflorescence. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots will normally have developed from the base, so that the plant can be considered a perennial.
The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called "hands"), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3 to 20 tiers, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh 30 to 50 kilograms (66 to 110 lb). Individual banana fruits are commonly known as a banana or can be known as a "finger."
Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and banana beer and as ornamental plants.
Featured in "All Art Welcome" group (03/01/2017); "AAA Images" group (06/29/2017); " ABC GROUP from the F IS FOR FRUIT" group (07/24/2020)
Uploaded
February 24th, 2017
Statistics
Viewed 360 Times - Last Visitor from Romeo, MI on 04/25/2024 at 7:19 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (2)
Luther Fine Art
Congratulations! Your fantastic art has been featured on the Home Page of the ABC GROUP from the F IS FOR FRUIT week, JULY 13 - July 20, 2020. You are invited to add your wonderful art to the Features Archive Discussion in the ABC GROUP!
Recently Viewed
