Plantain (Musa acuminata) sapling

Plantain (Musa acuminata) sapling

This plantain or banana (Musa acuminata) sapling is one of the two saplings arising from the corm group of a banana plant which had been there for two decades. The last of the plants got destroyed probably due to banana bunchy top virus infection. But I am not sure of the actual disease because I am not a botanist or an agricultural expert. New saplings kept springing from the ‘damaged’ corms which we continued to remove as they appeared unhealthy. Now these two appear slightly better and we are trying to see if they can re-establish the lineage! But these saplings are too tiny compared to the usual saplings which used to grow from this group of corms.

Plantain or banana (Musa acuminata) is the largest flowering herbaceous plant. The pseudo stem is formed by the stalks of the large leaves. When it is ready to flower an inflorescence borne at the tip of a true stem known as banana heart grows up within the pseudo stem and finally emerges at the top. From this multiple banana fruits are borne. The inflorescence stem is also edible and rich in fiber content. Unripe banana fruits are used as vegetables for cooking while ripe fruit is eaten as a dessert after removing the fibrous skin. Banana fruits are quite tasty and come in a variety of sizes and colors.