ABSTRACT
Most of the edible bananas known today are derived from two wild-seeded species, Musa acuminata Colla and M. balbisiana Colla. The fruits of these plants are barely edible and contain numerous seeds with only a small amount of edible pulp. Over the last 150 years, various botanists have categorized wild bananas into sections or subgenera. Linnaeus was the first to assign scientific nomenclature to bananas in his book Species Plantarum, published in 1753. Musa section Musa originated in southern India through the Asian continent to the Philippines, Sumatra, Borneo Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia. The genus Musa is composed of five sections-Australimusa, Callimusa, Musa, Rhodochlamys, and Ingentimusa-that possess a rich diversity of genetic traits and morphological characteristics. Contained within the section Musa are the edible bananas and plantains, which are of great importance both as an export crop and as a staple carbohydrate to a large portion of the world’s population.
