Reviewed feature article Ploetz, R.C. 2001. Black Sigatoka of Banana. The Plant Health Instructor. The most important disease of a most important fruit Prepared by Randy Ploetz Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, IFAS, Homestead Click image to enlarge.
Banana is one of the most fascinating and important of all crops.
It is a large monocotyledenous herb that originated in Southeast Asia. Virtually all of the cultivars that are grown are thought to have been selected as naturally occurring hybrids in this region by the earliest of farmers. In fact, Norman Simmonds proposed that banana was one of the first crops to be domesticated by man. Despite the current, clear understanding of its ancestry, the edible bananas' origins are often confused in the literature. Women selling fruit of Dwarf Cavendish AAA and Pisang awak ABB in a market in Karonga, Malawi, East Africa.