Systematics. Distribution and ecology. Cytogenetics of the wild bananas. The evolution of the wild bananas. Fruit development and edibility. The effects of polyploidy. The classification and breeding behaviour of the edible bananas. The evolution of the edible bananas.

"Award-winning journalist Dan Koeppel navigates across the planet and throughout history, telling the cultural and scientific story of the world's most ubiquitous fruit"--Page 4 of cover.

DIVThe history of banana cultivation and its huge impact on Latin American, history, politics, and culture./div

The Banana demystifies the banana trade and its path toward globalization. It reviews interregional relationships in the industry and the changing institutional framework governing global trade and assesses the roles of such major players as the European Union and the World Trade Organization. It also analyzes the forces driving today's economy, such as the competitiveness imperative, diversification processes, and niche market strategies. Its final chapter suggests how the outcome of the recent banana war will affect bananas and trade in other commodities sectors as well.

Winner of the 2012 Ka Palapala Po'okela Award for Excellence in Natural Science The World of Bananas in Hawai'i: Then and Now--unique, comprehensive, colorful, authoritative, readable and with over 1,900 color illustrations--culminates nine years of exhaustive library research coupled with painstaking field and agricultural investigations in Hawai'i and other Pacific islands. It is the first book about bananas in Hawai'i and a major contribution to Hawaiian culture. It is also the first attempt to trace banana/plantain evolution within the Pacific. Truly a "banana bible," it is written in highly accessible prose embracing a broad array of topics. Lavishly illustrated, it covers virtually every edible and inedible banana in Hawai'i, Polynesian introduced and international, including the spectacular ornamentals and fe'i. The World of Bananas reflects a deep respect for Hawaiian oral history and esteemed post-contact literature, reviving long-forgotten traditional foods, chants, crafts, and everyday clothing woven from bananas. As a result of Angela Kepler's 30-year Pacific-wide ecological research, readers will encounter original ideas (e.g., how migrant seabirds likely guided Marquesan seafarers to colonize Hawai'i) and delight in the multihued tapestry of true-to-life banana tales from the nebulous dawn of Hawaiian history to the present (e.g., the rediscovery of legendary banana groves). The authors shed fascinating new light on Hawai'i's little-known "pregnant" banana, mai'a hāpai, and resurrect a long-forgotten minor goddess, Hina-'ea, whose curative mai'a lele banana once healed vitamin A deficiencies in children. Interweaving extensive original research with judicious gleanings from a tiny worldwide network of banana specialists, this book provides new, dependable, and pictorial descriptions for 140 living varieties and 22 kinship groups, illustrated keys separating similar cultivars, hundreds of name synonyms, and information on pesticide-free care and maintenance, nutritional deficiencies, and troubleshooting pests/diseases. The mouth-watering recipe chapter includes savory dishes such as banana mayonnaise and meat-plantain casseroles.

Before 1880 most Americans had never seen a banana. By 1910 bananas were so common that streets were littered with their peels. Today Americans eat on average nearly seventy-five per year. More than a staple of the American diet, bananas have gained a secure place in the nation's culture and folklore. They have been recommended as the secret to longevity, the perfect food for infants, and the cure for warts, headaches, and stage fright. Essential to the cereal bowl and the pratfall, they remain a mainstay of jokes, songs, and wordplay even after a century of rapid change. Covering every aspect of the banana in American culture, from its beginnings as luxury food to its reputation in the 1910s as the “poor man's” fruit to its role today as a healthy, easy-to-carry snack, Bananas provides an insightful look at a fruit with appeal.

This is the second edition of Musalogue to be published by INIBAP. This Musalogue covers most of the diversity in the genus Musa and is intended to be educational in nature. Through this publication, INIBAP aims to inform a wide audience about the vast range of diversity to be found in both cultivated bananas and their wild relatives. The publication is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the wild species, covering the sections Eumusa, Australimusa, Callimusa and Rhodochlamys, while the second part provides information on cultivated varieties (cultivars). A list of the species and main groups and subgroups ofcultivars in the genus Musa is provided on page ix-xi (international classification).