The word ‘banana’ is virtually the same in German, French and Italian (In the West, only the Germans eat more bananas than we do) and comes from the Arabic word for “finger”.

The fruit of the banana plant grows in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 3-20 tiers to a bunch. The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially known as a “banana stem”, and can weigh anyhting between 30 to 50 kg. The entire stalk takes up to a year for the fruit to ripen enough to be harvested. The original stem dies after producing fruit, but sideshoots rise from the same underground corm to produce a new plant to be harvested the following year.

Some banana trees keep on producing for up to one hundred years, although most banana plantations renew their stock every ten to twenty-five years.