Where did bananas originate? Detailed answer

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Where did bananas originate? Detailed answer

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Where did bananas originate?

Bananas are the oldest fruits known in history. The most ancient people knew bananas and admired them. It is believed that bananas originally grew in South Asia, and over the centuries spread to the west and east. The Muslims called the banana palm the tree of paradise, while the Hindus deified bananas.

At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the priest Thomas de Berlanga brought banana roots to the New World. He hoped to win friendship with the Indians with this sweet, golden fruit and thus convert them to his faith. From these little roots grew a whole banana plantation of thousands of acres, which still exists in the tropical region of America!

The Indians found a variety of uses for bananas. They fry them while the bananas are green, eat them instead of bread. They boil them like vegetables, stew them, dry them like berries, and even make a strong alcoholic drink out of them! Although we say that bananas grow on a tree, it is actually not a tree, but a bush. It is probably the largest shrub in existence without a tree trunk. The stem, which reaches 3,5 to 9 meters and looks like a real tree trunk, is actually a mass of tough leaves.

The most developed banana varieties have lost the ability to produce seeds, which is much more convenient for eating. At the top of the plant is a huge tuft of hanging leaves, bright green in color. It is they that resemble a palm tree, make a banana look like a palm tree. One large flower bud grows in the middle of the trunk. And at the right time, it is on it that fruits appear. Since bananas grow in heavy bunches, the stem of the bush bends down.

It turns out that bananas grow upside down. Each bush grows one bunch of bananas, but its weight often reaches 45 kilograms or more! Bananas are always harvested while they are green, even when they are not going to be sent somewhere far away for sale. The reason is that if they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they burst and spoil before they are plucked. Bananas are transported on special ships built to transport bananas. They must be ventilated with a stream of cold air so that the fruits do not ripen during transport.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How did rivers appear?

There are many rivers on earth. Small rivers and streams, merging, form larger ones. They carry their waters to the seas and oceans. Others - such as the Volga - flow into inland seas and lakes. And some, flowing through dry regions, become smaller and smaller until they disappear altogether, evaporating or leaving dry soil.

The rivers themselves receive water from precipitation, as well as from melting snow and glaciers on mountain tops, from springs or mountain lakes. Large rivers have many tributaries, that is, smaller rivers flowing into them. Even such giant American rivers as the Ohio and Missouri are in fact only tributaries of the even more full-flowing Mississippi. Each of them, in turn, is fed by smaller tributaries, so that the huge Mississippi river system consists of thousands of rivers, rivulets and streams. A piece of land, the waters of which feed a particular system, is called a river basin.

The largest is the basin of the South American Amazon River, the territory of which is 7 square meters. km. The longest river in the world is the African Nile, its length is 050 km.

Rivers not only irrigate the soil, but also destroy it, washing away little by little year after year and carrying it into the ocean. This process is slow, but over thousands of years, its results are very noticeable. A clear example of the destructive effect of the river, which it exerts even on rocks, is the Grand Canyon, formed by the American Colorado River.

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