We are facing serious problems
Biodiversity crisis
According to statistics, at present, a species will disappear from the earth every hour, and if the current trend does not improve, then 0.01% to 0.1% of species will disappear from nature every year in the future. It is estimated that there are about 100 million species on the planet, which means that 10,000 to 100,000 species disappear from the world every year.
Do you think,
Are these endangered flora and fauna far away?
In fact
Even the banana varieties we often eat,
There is also a risk of extinction.
Oh no
Bananas have actually been "extinct" once.
Today, small farmers will come to talk to you about bananas.
Bananas (scientific name: Musa nana Lour.) is a plant of the family Plantainaceae. Native to southeastern Asia. Bananas are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions within 30° of north and south latitudes. There are about 130 banana-growing countries in the world, with Central America producing the most, followed by Asia.
The banana that has just emerged from the rainforest is not what we see today, it has a strange appearance, and there are seeds in the flesh, which can only be grown in certain tropical climates.
· "Banana tree", have you ever seen it? ·
In fact, bananas are the fruit of an herbaceous plant.
The stem of a banana is made up of a rolled-up petiole and does not contain the large amount of lignin found by woody plants, so bananas are herbaceous.
Banana "grass" is a large, perennial evergreen herbaceous monocotyledonous plant with no main roots, oblong leaves, bright green in color, summer and autumn flowers, and spike-like inflorescences drooping.
When you cut the banana stalk, you will find that the banana stalk is a grassy stem like a corn stalk, and it is easy to cut a very thick banana stalk with a sickle.
Banana grass grows quickly and is very tall, generally reaching between 2 and 3.5 meters.
Papua New Guinea has a special banana variety, the tallest banana is 20 meters tall, once set a record for the highest in the world, and the branches are so thick that an adult cannot hold it. It is said that the fruit of this variety of bananas is 30 centimeters long, thicker than the arm, and according to the amount of food eaten by ordinary people, it is impossible to eat one banana at a time.
Local residents use banana leaves to shield them from the wind and rain, or to process them into cloth or paper.
Bananas have a "strange flower" ·
The banana flowers are large, shaped like giant bullets, heavy in weight, and covered with ridged purple-red edges. The structure of the banana flower is similar to the shell of a bamboo shoot, peeling off a shell, that is, a layer of flowers, and peeling off a layer of flowers.
Banana blossoms are also a delicious food, and it is common to use banana blossoms to cook in the Xishuangbanna region of the mainland and some countries in Southeast Asia.
How long does it take to grow into a "towering grass"?
The banana grass can grow thick in about six or seven months, and when the banana fruit is ripe, the banana stalks and large leaves will also lose their nutrients and begin to wither.
However, it is worth mentioning that after the banana dies, near the rhizome of the banana grass in the second year, one or more new banana seedlings will grow, continue to grow, flower, and bear fruit, and each plant can live for many years. Digging out the excess new seedlings and planting them in another place can become a separate banana grass. Through this asexual reproduction model, both "old plantains" and "tender bananas" are just cloned replicas of exactly the same genes.
This banana with its own "infinite growth" aura is very popular with fruit growers but also lays hidden dangers for their "extinction".
The big mike that disappeared
At first, there were hundreds of edible bananas in the world, but in order to standardize production, banana companies chose one of the most commercially valuable bananas: Gros Michel, also known as rice seven bananas. This variety of bananas is large and delicious, popular with "foodies" around the world, and has since been widely grown.
However, a disease in the 1950s changed all that. At the time, a Fusarium infection known as Panama disease began in South Asia and spread rapidly to banana plantations around the world in just a few years.
※F. oxysporum is a worldwide distribution of soil-borne pathogenic fungi with a wide range of hosts that can cause more than 100 kinds of plant blight such as melons, solanaceae, bananas, cotton, legumes and flowers.
This fungus in the soil can infect the rhizomes of the rice seven bananas, causing the vascular bundle to rot and then the whole plant to die. By the 1970s, Big Mac Banana was on the verge of extinction and the global banana industry was on the verge of collapse.
Thankfully, there are still very few big macks grown in Thailand, and a very small number of big macs can be regarded as Versailles-level "luxury goods" in today's fruit market.
The fate of the unknown Plantain
Subsequently, the Cavendish banana appeared on our shelves, which is not as "fragrant" as the big mac, but can resist the infection of Fusarium. Now, it has become the most common banana variety on the market. Of course, we can also buy other bananas, such as millet bananas, which are very common in southern China, but this is not the mainstream of the market.
However, unfortunately, we have obviously experienced a large-scale banana extinction disaster, but the cultivation of Chinese bananas still adopts the mode of monoculture and asexual reproduction, and Hua bananas and the former big mac still go on the same path.
In the 1990s, a fusarium called Tropical 4 (TR4) threatened bananas around the world again and accelerated in recent years. This highly contagious fungus has ravaged banana plantations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, causing significant losses. In 2019, TR4 appeared in banana plantations in Colombia, South America, and the main banana producing area in the Americas is also on the verge of falling.
Once the infection occurs, the familiar "banana" may disappear and the banana industry will change again.
Of course, this does not mean that the banana industry has come to an end, after all, bananas have a huge family. However, whether we can find new varieties that taste good, are easy to grow and transport, and are resistant to fungi is still unknown.
I wonder what the "next" banana tastes like?
Why not, while the banana is still there, we all eat more?
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Pay attention to small farmers, and trace the human history of fruits and vegetables while eating, explore plant culture, and seek inspiration from the natural world.