Musaceae

The Musaceaefamily of angiosperm plants includes around 40 species of large herbaceous plantsspreadin the tropical regions of Africa and Asia.
The bananas, Musa L.genusare herbaceous plants with a powerful rhizome system, and a short underground stem with6 — 20 leaves.Leaf sheaths form a kind of stem (a pseudo-stem) above ground.The height of the plant varies from 2 to9 meters and more.Along with the bamboo species, this makes them one of the highest herbaceous plants.
The leaves are large, smooth, oblong or oval, arranged in a spiral and reaching 2.7 meters in length and 60 cm in width.As they grow, the old outer leaves gradually dry out.In proper conditions one leave grows in approximately a week.
Bloom occurs after 8 — 10 months of active growth of the plant.The raceme is bisexual.In its base are arranged the large female flowers followed by the smaller male ones.All flowers are tube-shaped, consist of 3 petals, 3 sepals, usually 6 stamens, one of them underdeveloped and containing no pollen.The flowers are arranged at layers and contain large quantity of sweet nectar.Each layer consists of 12 — 20 radially arranged flowers.They are covered with fleshy modified leaves. Pollination is done by bats, birds and small mammals.The fruits grow out only from the female flowers.The banana plant is one of the most ancient cultivated plants.The etymology of the word banana is from the Arab ‘banan’meaning soil.