This is one of those things that I never knew. (Like how I make that seem like a relatively small number?) The banana is not an original reproducing species. It’s a clone. A clone from bananas thousands of years ago.
So pretty much the bananas we eat today on our bowl of Grapes Nuts, or underneath an ice cream sundae, are the same suckers that they plucked out of trees thousands of years ago.
In otherwords, a banana is an old-ass fruit. And one that’s in danger.
Almost all the varieties of banana grown today are cuttings – clones, in effect – of naturally mutant wild bananas discovered by early farmers as much as 10,000 years ago. The rare mutation caused wild bananas to grow sterile, without seeds. Those ancient farmers took cuttings of the mutants, then cuttings of the cuttings.
Plants use reproduction to continuously shuffle their gene pool, building up variety so that part of the species will survive an otherwise deadly disease. Because sterile mutant bananas cannot breed, they do not have that protection.
Can you imagine a world without bananas? What sort of peels will cartoon characters slip on from now on? What will monkeys eat in the movies?
I knew that 80% of American avocados originated from an East L.A backyard avocado tree owned by a man named Hass. Thus the Hass Avocado. All that guacamole is the result of one mother tree from the 30’s that finally met its fate in 2002. She must have been a proud mother.
But I had no idea that bananas were clones and not originally-reproducing fruits. I guess I’m not shocked, there’s plenty of things in the world that I’m in the dark on, but I am surprised that they are in danger of being wiped off the face of the earth.
I always assumed that bananas would outlast mankind. They still might, but it’s a tough race now.
I can’t imagine a world without bananas, and I don’t even like bananas. I find them too smushy. I do like peanut butter and bananas in a blender with some milk, sugar, and ice. Makes a pretty good shake.
So eat em’ folks. They might not be here forever.
Two fungal diseases, Panama disease and black Sigatoka, are cutting a swath through banana plantations, just as blight once devastated potato crops. But unlike the potato, and other crops where disease-resistant strains can be bred by conventional means, making a fungus-free variety of the banana is extraordinarily difficult.
What are your thoughts? Does anyone care about the possible extinction of the banana? If not, which fruit would you be sorry to see go?
I would write more, but another episode The Bad Girls Club is on, so I gotta wrap it up.
Thanks for reading.
