Nearly all edible bananas are derived from the wild Musa acuminata, which has seeds. They were transformed from jungle weeds into an important food crop by human selection of parthenocarpic forms which developed their fruit without fertilisation. The fruit weighs around 30 kg and is harvested green as it is very delicate in ripe conditions. It is ripe when the peel shows brown spots.
When the fruit has been harvested the mother plant dies and is replaced by a sucker (surplus suckers are removed), so the crop is a continuous one. Bananas are one of the biggests single items in the international fruit trade, but there are many varieties which rarely appear in European markets, being eaten mainly in the countries where they are grown. The old stems and leaves are good fodder for cattle. The plant although often called a ‘tree’ is really a giant herb whose ‘stem’ is composed of overlapping leaf bases.