SEEKING W - B-A-N-A-N-A-S

SEEKING W

ONDER

Are you a banana fan or no? Did you know that a banana is actually a berry (scientifically speaking) and a fruit. To be honest, after researching about bananas and reading the explanation of how berries are different than fruit, my knowledge of berryness has ever expanded.

Medium-dive shall we…. to be a berry: A berry must consist of three different layers: exocarp (outer skin), mesocarp (fleshy middle) and the endocarp (innermost part holds the seeds). A fruit needs to have two or more seeds also to hold the berry title, i.e. watermelon, grapes and oranges. So, you may have a fruit that is also a berry. In order for the distinction between the two is that the fruits must develop from a flower that has one or more ovary(ies). Yes, a flower can have more than one ovary, i.e. strawberry and raspberry. But blueberries, bananas, tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, eggplants, and kiwis come from a flower with just one ovary.

Now that we got that settled, a banana is a berry and also a fruit! That’s weird to say but scientifically speaking it’s true.

If you look into bananas and the history, it can be quite confusing. Especially all the fruit and berry talk. Technically our bananas now are GMO’d, but they are done so by pure nature. “The bananas we eat are genetically modified organisms by their very triploid nature. Those genetic changes have natural origins, but given that bananas are sterile, the only way they can be meaningfully diversified is through our hands, using conventional or sophisticated technologies.” So even though they are GMO’d, it’s all through their own battles in banana-hood and help from their side-kicks, humans.

Another fun fact of the banana is our bananas are not the same as your grandparents or parents used to eat. Pre-1940s and 50s the Gros Michels bananas were what they knew as the common banana; however, the Panama disease wiped them out and a “newer” banana, the “Cavendish,” swooped in and became a popular hit in the 60s. The Cavendish banana was resistant to the Panama disease back then. Now we are to Tropical Race 4 of the Panama disease which is affecting the growth and production of bananas from a soil-borne fungus that restricts water and nutrients from entering the plant.

With that being said, our banana consumption is in jeopardy. In the 1980s, Tropical Race 4 wiped out all crops in relation to bananas in the subtropics and recently has made its way to Laos, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Mozambique, Australia, Cambodia and Latin America. There is no known cure for the Panama disease and with the United States pulling number one in consumption, as well as the banana being a huge staple for nutrition in third-world countries, finding a new “frankenfood” or looking into Australia’s QCAV-4 (Cavendish Grand Nain) for commercial production is something we may need to consider.

BY

SAMANTHA Y OCIUS CREATIVE MEDIA