Natural Diversity
Bananas come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Depending on variety and ripeness,the flesh can be starchy to sweet, and firm to mushy. Plantains and cooking bananas are the staple food of many Latin American, Asian and African populations while in temperate countries the dessert or sweet varieties are eaten.

Originally, bananas contained rather large seeds but the fruit’s popularity over the millennia has undoubtedly been due to man’s preference for seedless varieties. The only trouble is that the banana’s edibility has also increased its genetic vulnerability. This absence of seeds means bananas cannot reproduce sexually and have only survived for some 10,000 years because of vegetative propagation by side shoots (suckers). In modern cultivation, however, bananas are multiplied in vitro by tissue culture. Bananas belonging to the Cavendish subgroup presently play the major role in trade. The problem is that all Cavendish varieties are very similar – both in terms of their genes and increased vulnerability to diseases and pests.
There is a great deal of natural diversity in the hundreds of known cultivars. In Guatemala, for example, the most common varieties vary quite significantly in size, colour and taste. The coffee and purple coloured Majunches, for example, are shorter and thicker than exported bananas and have a rich, slightly astringent taste. The Guineo, which is also known as the golden or apple banana from the colour of its skin, is quite small, a mere 10 cm long, and very sweet.

When Pintos ripen, their skin is covered with spots but the flesh is very sweet and soft. The De Seda or Silk variety is popular throughout Central America for its texture, flavour and keeping qualities.

Blue Java, Cavendish, Cuban Red, Gros Michel, Lady Finger, Orinoco, Popoulu, Valery, Williams – the list of varieties is as long as it is exotic. Bananas come in all shapes and sizes, but the history of just two varieties illustrates the genetic vulnerability of this most popular fruit. 40 years ago, Panama Disease (Fusarium oxysporum race 1), a soil fungus that attacks banana roots, wiped out the world’s then-favourite export variety, Gros Michel. So plantation owners switched to the resistant Cavendish subgroup, which now accounts for nearly 50% of global banana production. However, this subgroup is also susceptible to pests and diseases.