Types of banana trees
Bananas are one of the most well-known and loved fruits, but many people do not even wonder what plant they are obtained from. Bananas or bananas are perennial herbaceous plants of the genus Musa . At first glance it is easy to confuse them with palm trees, but they really have nothing to do with it, since the banana trees do not have a trunk. What appears to be a stem is actually a pseudostem made up of very tight leaf sheaths. They only form an aerial stem when they flower. The true stem is kept underground and is what is known as a rhizome, which only rises abroad in very old specimens.
Even among those who know these plants there is a belief that they are strictly tropical plants, and this is not true. From which the fruits sold in greengrocers are extracted, they are tropical, but there are many other species that are very resistant to cold. The most cold-resistant banana tree, Musa basjoo , withstands temperatures close to -20ºC. Below you can see the most important and striking species that we have selected for each of the two types of banana: tropical and cold resistant.
These banana trees generally do not withstand the cold well and their fruits normally take more than half a year to mature, so it is not possible to obtain fruit in frosty climates. They prefer warm temperatures and high ambient humidity. They need a lot of water and fertile soil with good drainage. They prefer to be in full sun but tolerate some shade (the less humidity, the more shade they need). All banana trees that are cultivated on a large scale to extract fruit are in this category.
