Hungarian banana history: from rarity to staple food

Not a tree, but a grass

Although many people think of it as a woody plant, the banana is actually a large, soft-stemmed grass, belonging to the monocotyledons. The term “banana tree” is therefore botanically incorrect. The plant, which belongs to the Musaceae family, can grow up to 6-7 meters tall and is considered the largest soft-stemmed plant in the world – writes Agrárszektor.

A little genetics: how did bananas become seedless?

Most cultivated bananas are seedless, which is why they are triploid, meaning they have three sets of chromosomes. This trait was achieved by crossing two wild species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Seedless fruit is easier to eat and doesn’t require spitting – just as this has become a consumer expectation for seedless grapes or seedless melons. Cultivation is done vegetatively, with shoots, so that the identity of the variety can be ensured.

Eating bananas, baking bananas, banana flour

The best-known variety is the eating banana (Musa x paradisiaca), which is mostly eaten raw. In addition, we can increasingly find the cooking banana (plantain), which is delicious baked or cooked due to its higher starch content. In recent years, banana flour has also appeared, which can be a gluten-free alternative to traditional grain flours. What’s more, banana leaves don’t go to waste either: they are also used for food packaging, textiles or ropes.

Bananas were considered a real curiosity in Hungary even in the early 1980s. Later, they appeared in stores more and more often, mainly in winter, and now they are available all year round. The range has also expanded: they can now be found on store shelves not only as fresh fruit, but also as flour, chips or as a smoothie base.