Musa × paradisiaca (Plantain)

Developed in cultivation from Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, this group includes plantains and other hybrid bananas grown widely in the tropics. These giant perennial herbs have pseudostems formed from overlapping leaf sheaths, with new shoots arising from underground rhizomes. Cultivated forms usually produce seedless fruit without pollination and are propagated vegetatively. Plantains are starchier and less sweet than most dessert bananas. They are boiled, steamed, fried or roasted at different stages of ripeness. In West Africa, boiled plantains are pounded into fufu, sometimes with cassava; dried green fruit can also be milled into flour. Photographed in the central Andes mountain range of Colombia.