Image: Wikimedia Commons (See link for license)
Banana family
Musaceae
バショウ科
A family including bananas and Japanese fiber banana. Banana is one of the world's most important fruit crops. These are large herbs (enlarged leaf sheaths overlap to form a pseudostem) rather than true trees. In Japan, Musa basjoo grows as far north as southern Honshu.
Key Characteristics
- ●Massive leaf sheaths stack to form a pseudostem
- ●Leaves are large, oblong, with a thick midrib
- ●Inflorescence is pendulous, enclosed by large bracts
- ●Fruit is a berry (banana); cultivated varieties are triploid and seedless
Morphological Traits
A family may include species with different trait values — multiple values indicate the range within the family.
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Simple
Venation
Pinnate
Leaf margin
Entire
Growth form
Herb
Evergreen/Deciduous
Deciduous
Leaf dissection
Undivided
Latex
Present
Flower symmetry
Zygomorphic
Petal count
6 petals
Ovary position
Inferior
Plant sex
Monoecious
Phylogenetic Position
Angiosperms > Monocots > Zingiberales > Musaceae
Divergence Era
Late Cretaceous to Paleogene (from about 65 million years ago)
Representative Genera
Related Evolution Events
- ・Evolution of giant herbaceous habit through pseudostem formation (without lignification)
- ・Artificial selection of triploid bananas producing seedless, enlarged fruits
Plants in Banana family on this site
AI-generated, needs verification