document_title: Capital punishment in Texas

question_text: when did texas get rid of the electric chair

text: Capital punishment in Texas

text: History[edit]

text: The first recorded execution in Texas occurred in 1819 with the execution of a white male, George Brown, for piracy.[2] In 1840, a black male, Henry Forbes, was executed for jail-breaking.[3] Prior to Texas statehood in 1846, eight executions—all by hanging—were carried out.[2]

text: Upon statehood, hanging would be the method used for almost all executions until 1924. Hangings were administered by the county where the trial took place. The last hanging in the state was that of Nathan Lee, a man convicted of murder and executed in Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas on August 31, 1923.[4] The only other method used at the time was execution by firing squad, which was used for three Confederate deserters during the American Civil War as well as a man convicted of attempted rape in 1863.[5]

text: Texas changed its execution laws in 1923, requiring the executions be carried out on the electric chair and that they take place at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville (also known as Huntsville Unit). From 1928 until 1965, this was also home to the state's male death row. The first executions on the electric chair were on February 8, 1924, when Charles Reynolds, Ewell Morris, George Washington, Mack Matthews, and Melvin Johnson had their death sentences carried out. The five executions were the most carried out on a single day in the state. The state would conduct multiple executions on a single day on several other occasions, the last being on September 5, 1951. Since then, the state has not executed more than one person on a single day, though there is no law prohibiting it. A total of 361 people were electrocuted in Texas, with the last being Joseph Johnson on July 30, 1964.

text: The United States Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238 (1972)), which declared Georgia's "unitary trial" procedure (in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment) to be unconstitutional on the grounds that it was a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, essentially negated all death penalty sentences nationwide.

text: As result of the Furman decision, the 52 Texas death-row inmates at the time had all their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.[6] Among them was Kenneth McDuff, who was originally condemned for the murder of three teenagers in 1966. He was paroled in 1989 and executed in 1998 for a murder he committed while on parole, and is suspected to have been responsible for many other killings.[7]

text: Furman led to a 1973 revision of the laws, primarily by introducing the bifurcated trial process (where the guilt-innocence and punishment phases are separate) and narrowly limiting the legal definition of capital murder (and, thus, those offenses for which the death penalty could be imposed). The first person sentenced to death under a new Texas statute was John Devries on February 15, 1974; Devries hanged himself in his cell on July 1, 1974 (using bedsheets from his bunk) before he could be executed.[6][8]

text: The Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 once again allowed for the death penalty to be imposed. (A Texas case was a companion case in the Gregg decision and was upheld by the Court; the Court stated that Texas' death penalty scheme could potentially result in fewer death penalty cases, an irony given that post-Gregg Texas has by far executed more inmates than any other state.) However, the first execution in Texas after this decision would not take place until December 7, 1982 with that of Charles Brooks, Jr.. Brooks was also the first person to be judicially executed by lethal injection in the world, and the first African American to be executed in the United States since 1967.

text: In the post-Gregg era, Texas has executed 537 people.[9] There are a variety of proposed legal and cultural explanations as to why Texas has more executions than any other state. One possible reason is due to the federal appellate structure – federal appeals from Texas are made to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Michael Sharlot, dean of the University of Texas at Austin Law School, found the Fifth Circuit to be a "much more conservative circuit" than the Ninth Circuit to which federal appeals from California are made. According to him, the Fifth is "more deferential to the popular will" that is strongly pro-death penalty and creates few legal obstacles to execution within its jurisdiction.[10][11] As of 2004, however, Texas may have a lower rate of death sentencing than other states, according to a study by Cornell University.[12]

text: Texas has executed nine women in its history, the most recent being Lisa Ann Coleman on September 17, 2014.

text: Capital crimes[edit]

text: Under Texas statutes, a murder is capital if the offender:[13]

text:
Murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman
Intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit aggravated kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat
Commits the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration
Commits the murder while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution
Commits the murder, while incarcerated, of a person who is employed in the operation of the penal institution or with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination
Commits the murder while incarcerated for murder; or while serving a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of 99 years for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault or aggravated robbery
Murders more than one person during the same criminal transaction or during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct
Murders an individual under 10 years of age
Murders another person in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.

text: Texas statute books still provide the death penalty for aggravated sexual assault committed by an offender previously convicted of the same against a child under 14. The victim's age under which child murder is punishable by death was raised from six to 10 in 2011 by the Texas legislature.[14]

text: Legal procedure[edit]

text: The prosecution may choose not to seek the death penalty. This can be for various reasons, such as the prosecution believing that they could not show the defendant worthy of death, or the family of the victim has asked that the death penalty not be imposed.

text: Trial phase[edit]

text: When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury. A death sentence must be unanimous, while a life sentence requires only 10 votes.

text: In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).

text: Jurors in the sentencing phase are first asked to determine whether the defendant represents a future danger to society; only after ruling that "there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society" will the jury choose the sentence itself, by deciding whether there is "sufficient mitigating circumstance or circumstances to warrant that a sentence of life imprisonment without parole rather than a death sentence be imposed" or not.

text: Appeals[edit]

text: The imposition of a death sentence in Texas results in an automatic direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal tribunal (the intermediate Texas Court of Appeals is bypassed). A person convicted of capital murder may also attack their convictions or sentences via writs of habeas corpus at both the state and federal levels.[15]

text: Texas's appeal process has been criticized as too lengthy compared to other states such as Virginia by death penalty supporters. In 2016, the legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation Kent Scheidegger said: "In Texas, part of the problem is some cases go back for a second review to the trial court and some trial courts just sit on them for years. That simply shouldn't be allowed."[16]

text: Clemency[edit]

text: In addition to seeking judicial review of the sentence, a defendant may also appeal to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, a separate agency from TDCJ, for commutation of the sentence to life in prison.

text: The Board, after hearing testimony, decides whether or not to recommend commutation to the Governor of Texas. If the Board recommends commutation, the Governor can accept or reject the recommendation. However, if the board does not recommend commutation, the Governor has no power to override the Board's non-recommendation (the law was changed in 1936 due to concerns that pardons were being sold for cash under the administrations of former Governor James E. Ferguson and later his wife and Texas's first female Governor Miriam A. Ferguson).[17]

text: The only unilateral action which the Governor can take is to grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve to the defendant, and can do so regardless of what the Board recommends in a particular case.[18][19]

text: Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only two defendants sentenced to death have been granted clemency by the Governor after a recommendation from the Board:

text:
Henry Lee Lucas in 1998 by George W. Bush.
Kenneth Foster in 2007 by Rick Perry.[20]

text: Death row[edit]

text: Male death row inmates are housed at the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston;[6][21] female death row inmates are housed at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville. All death row inmates at both units are physically segregated from the general population, are housed in individual cells approximately 60 square feet (5.6 m2) in size, and engage in recreational activities individually apart from the general population and other death row inmates. They receive special death row ID numbers instead of regular Texas Department of Criminal Justice numbers.[6]

text: Death row prisoners, along with prisoners in administrative segregation, are seated individually on prison transport vehicles. The TDCJ makes death row prisoners wear various restraints, including belly chains and leg irons, while being transported.[22] Death row offenders and offenders with life imprisonment without parole enter the TDCJ system through two points; men enter through the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, and women enter through the Reception Center in Christina Crain Unit, Gatesville. From there, death row inmates go to their designated death row facilities.[23]

text: Previously death row inmates were permitted to work. After an escape attempt occurred in 1998, the prison work program was suspended.[24]

text: The state of Texas began housing death row inmates in the Huntsville Unit in 1928. In 1965 the male death row inmates moved to the Ellis Unit. In 1999 the male death row moved to Polunsky.[25] In the 1923-1973 period Texas state authorities had three female death row inmates;[26] the first, Emma "Straight Eight" Oliver, was held at Huntsville Unit after her 1949 sentencing, but had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 1951.[27] Mary Anderson, sentenced to death in 1978,[28] was held at Goree Unit.[27] Her death sentence was reversed in 1982,[28] and the sentence was changed to murder.[29]

text: Execution procedure[edit]

text: The TDCJ website maintains a list of inmates with scheduled execution dates, which is generally updated within 1–2 days after an execution date is set, an execution takes place, or a stay of execution is granted and the date withdrawn.

text: Date of execution[edit]

text: The judge presiding over a capital case sets the execution date once it appears that all the offender's appeals have been exhausted.[30] The initial date of execution cannot be prior to the 91st day after the day the order is entered and (if the original order is withdrawn) subsequent execution dates cannot be less than the 31st day after the order is entered, provided that no habeas corpus motion has been filed under Article 11.071; otherwise, the date cannot be set prior to the court either denying relief, or issuing its mandate.[31] In the event an offender manages to escape confinement, and not be re-arrested until after the set execution date, the revised date of execution shall be not less than 30 days from the date the order is issued.[32]

text: Execution day[edit]

text: The law does not prohibit multiple executions in a single day; however, Texas has not executed multiple offenders on a single day since August 9, 2000, on which two offenders were executed.[33]

text: The law only specifies that "[t]he execution shall take place at a location designated by the Texas Department of Corrections in a room arranged for that purpose."[34] However, since 1923, all executions have been carried out at the Huntsville Unit, the former location of death row.

text: On the afternoon of a prisoner's scheduled execution,[35] he or she is transported directly from his or her death row unit to the Huntsville Unit.[36] Men leave the Polunsky Unit in a three-vehicle convoy bound for the Huntsville Unit;[35] women leave from the Mountain View Unit. The only individuals who are informed of the transportation arrangements are the wardens of the affected units. The TDCJ does not make an announcement regarding what routes are used.[36]

text: Upon arrival at the Huntsville Unit, the condemned is led through a back gate, submits to a cavity search, then is placed in a holding cell.

text: Before 2011, the condemned was given an opportunity to have a last meal based on what the unit's cafeteria could prepare from its stock. Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, said in 2010 that most condemned prisoners ordered "standard American fare in heaping portions, the sorts of meals that recall a childhood Sunday."[35] Many female prisoners under the death sentence did not take a last meal.[37] However, Lawrence Russel Brewer, a white supremacist gang member convicted for the high-profile hate crime dragging death of James Byrd Jr., ordered a large last meal and did not eat it before his execution. In response, John Whitmire, a member of the Texas legislature, asked the TDCJ to stop special meals. Whitmire stated to the press that Brewer's victim, Mr. Byrd, "didn't get to choose his last meal." The TDCJ complied. Brian Price, a former prison chef, offered to personally cook and pay for any subsequent special last meal since the TDCJ is not paying for them anymore.[38] However, Whitmire warned in a letter that he would seek formal state legislation when lawmakers next convened if the "last meal" tradition wasn't stopped immediately.[39] Afterwards, the TDCJ stopped serving special last meals, and will only allow execution chamber prisoners to have the same kind of meal served to regular prisoners.[40] Many prisoners requested cigarettes (which were denied as TDCJ has banned smoking in its facilities).

text: Under Texas law, executions are carried out at or after 6 p.m. Huntsville (Central) time "by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until such convict is dead".[41] The law does not specify the substance(s) to be used; previously, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice the chemicals used for the lethal injection were the commonly-used three-drug combination of (in order) sodium thiopental (a dose which sedates the offender, but not enough to kill outright), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant which collapses the diaphragm and lungs), and potassium chloride (which stops the heartbeat). The offender is usually pronounced dead approximately seven minutes after start of the injection process; the cost for the three substances is $86.08 per offender.[6] As a result of drug shortages, sodium thiopental was replaced by pentobarbital in 2011.[42] Further shortages of this drug have pushed the cost of the drugs to approximately $1300 per offender.[43] Still further shortages of pancuronium bromide (and the expiration of the existing stock) forced the state into switching to a single-drug protocol, using solely pentobarbital.[44]

text: The only persons legally allowed to be present (none of whom can be convicts) at the execution are:[45]

text:
the executioner "and such persons as may be necessary to assist him in conducting the execution"
the Board of Directors of the Department of Corrections
two physicians including the prison physician
the spiritual advisor of the condemned
the chaplains of the Department of Corrections
the county judge and sheriff of the county in which the crime was committed
no more than five relatives or friends of the condemned person

text: In response to victims rights groups, TDCJ adopted a board rule in January 1996 allowing five victim witnesses (six for multiple victims). Initially the witnesses were limited to immediate family and individuals with a close relationship to the victim, but the board rule was modified in 1998 to allow close friends of surviving witnesses, and further modified in May 2008 to allow the victim witnesses to be accompanied by a spiritual advisor who is a bona fide pastor or comparable official of the victim's religion.[46]

text: Media coverage[edit]

text: Five members of the media are also allowed to witness the execution, divided equally as possible between the rooms containing the offender's and victim's witnesses.[46]

text: Under current TDCJ guidelines, representatives of the Associated Press and The Huntsville Item (the local newspaper for Huntsville, Texas) are guaranteed two of the five slots to witness an execution.[47] The Associated Press regularly sends a representative to cover executions; Michael Graczyk (from the AP's Houston office) is usually the representative sent, having attended over 300 executions in his career. The Item also generally covers all executions, regardless of county of conviction (Cody Stark is generally the representative).

text: Other media members must submit their requests at least three days prior to the execution date; priority will be given to media members representing the area in which the capital crime took place. Generally, other newspapers will only cover executions where the crime was committed within their general circulation area (the Houston Chronicle is often one of them, with Harris County being the state's largest and having the most number of inmates on death row), and frequently even then will rely on the AP report.[48] College and university media are not permitted to be witnesses.[47]

text: Post-execution[edit]

text: Upon the offender's death the body shall be immediately embalmed, and shall be disposed of as follows:[49]

text:
A relative or bona fide friend of the offender may demand or request the body within 48 hours after death, upon payment of a fee not to exceed US$25 for the mortician's services in embalming the deceased; once TDCJ receives the receipt the body shall be released to the requestor or his/her authorized agent.
If no relative or bona fide friend requests the body, the Anatomical Board of the State of Texas may request the body, but must also pay the US$25 fee for embalming services and TDCJ must receive the receipt prior to delivery.
If no relative, bona fide friend, or the Anatomical Board requests the body, TDCJ shall cause the body to be "decently buried" with the embalming fee to be paid by the county in which the indictment resulting in the conviction occurred.

text: The TDCJ keeps an online record of all of its executions, including race, age, county of origin, and last words.[50] The TDCJ is the only corrections agency in the US to extensively catalog the last words of executed inmates, and the only one to post the last words other than the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).[51]

text: The main TDCJ prison cemetery for prisoners not picked up by their families after death is the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville. Headstones of death row prisoners have prison numbers with the beginning “999”, a state designation for a death row inmate, or they have the letters "EX" or "X".[52]

text: Franklin T. "Frank" Wilson, an assistant professor of criminology at Indiana State University,[53] and a former PhD student at Sam Houston State University,[54] stated that about 2% of the people buried at the Byrd Cemetery had been executed, but the public believes that all executed prisoners are buried there because the Huntsville Unit, the site of execution in Texas, is in close proximity.[54] Most executed prisoners are claimed by their families.[52] While most prisoner funerals at Byrd Cemetery are held on Thursdays, in order to allow families of executed prisoners to make a single trip to Huntsville instead of two separate trips, the burial of an executed prisoner not claimed by the family is usually done the day after his or her execution.[52]

text: Opposition[edit]

text: The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a 501(c)(3) grassroots membership organization was founded in 1998. TCADP has members across the state of Texas working to educate their local communities on the problems of the Texas death penalty. TCADP hosts multiple education and training opportunities each year around the state including releasing an annual report on December 7 and a day-long annual conference which includes workshops, panel discussions, networking and awards. The conference is held in Austin during legislative years and in other Texas Cities in non-legislative years (2012: San Antonio). TCADP opened a state office in Austin in 2004 with a paid program coordinator and hired an executive director in 2008. TCADP is affiliated with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

text: The March to Abolish the Death Penalty is the current name of an event organized each October since 2000 by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.[55] Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break is an annual event started by Texas Moratorium Network in 2004 and now co-organized by Texas Students Against the Death Penalty. It serves as a training ground for students who oppose the death penalty.[56]

text: The Death Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement (D.R.I.V.E.) consists of several male death row inmates from the Polunsky Unit. Through a variety of non-violent strategies, they have begun launching protests against the perceived bad conditions at Polunsky, in particular, and capital punishment, in general. They actively seek to consistently voice complaints to the administration, to organize grievance filing to address problems. They occupy day rooms, non-violently refuse to evacuate their cells or initiate sit-ins in visiting rooms, hallways, pod runs and recreation yards when there is the perception of an act of abuse of authority by guards (verbal abuse; physical abuse; meals/recreations or showers being wrongly denied; unsanitary day rooms and showers being allowed to persist; medical being denied; paper work being denied; refusing to contact higher rank to address the problems and complaints) and when alleged retaliation (thefts, denials, destruction of property; food restrictions; wrongful denials of visits; abuse of inmates) is carried out in response to their grievances.

text: In 2016, Pfizer and other drug manufacturers banned the use of their products for lethal injections. Texas and other states were reported to be finding it difficult to obtain supplies of drugs for executions.[57]

text: Alleged execution of innocent persons[edit]

text: Cameron Todd Willingham[edit]

text: One notable case involves Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004 for murdering his three daughters in 1991 by arson, but where a 2009 article in The New Yorker, and subsequent findings, have cast doubt on the evidence used in his conviction.

text: In 2009, a report conducted by Dr. Craig Beyler, hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to review the case, found that "a finding of arson could not be sustained". Beyler said that key testimony from a fire marshal at Willingham's trial was "hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and is more characteristic of mystics or psychics”.[58]

text: Governor Rick Perry expressed skepticism of Beyler's findings. He stated that court records showed evidence of Willingham’s guilt in charges that he intentionally killed his daughters in the fire. Perry is quoted in the report as stating of Willingham, "I’m familiar with the latter-day supposed experts on the arson side of it," and Perry said that court records provide "clear and compelling, overwhelming evidence that he was in fact the murderer of his children."[59] The Corsicana Fire Department also released a 19-page rebuttal of Beyler's report, stating that the report overlooked several key points that would show Willingham to be guilty.[60]

text: On July 23, 2010, the Texas Forensic Science Commission released a report saying that the conviction was based on "flawed science", but that there is no indication that the arson authorities were negligent or committed willful misconduct. [61]

text: Carlos DeLuna[edit]

text: Carlos DeLuna was convicted of murder and executed in 1989 for the killing of a 24-year-old gas station attendant on the evening of February 4, 1983.[50] Since DeLuna's execution by lethal injection, doubts have been raised about the conviction and the question of his guilt. An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 has strengthened these claims of innocence by detailing a large amount of evidence suggesting the actual murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a similar-looking man who lived in a nearby neighborhood.[62]

text: Frances Newton[edit]

text: Frances Newton was executed in 2005 despite much doubt about her guilt, and much confusion over the actual weapon used in the murder(s) for which she was sentenced to death.[63]

text: Johnny Frank Garrett[edit]

text: Johnny Frank Garrett was executed in 1992 for killing 76-year-old nun Tadea Benz in Amarillo in 1981. In 2004, after DNA-analyses, Leonicio Perez Rueda was found to be the murderer of Narnie Box Bryson, who was killed four months before Sister Benz. After being confronted, the murderer confessed to killing Bryson. Rueda is also believed to have been the real murderer of Sister Benz.

text: Execution of Mexican nationals[edit]

text: Three Mexican nationals have been recently executed in Texas – José Medellín in 2008, Humberto Leal García in 2011, and Édgar Tamayo Arias in 2014. (Prior to Medellin v. Texas, four Mexican nationals were executed by Texas, who were Ramón Montoya, Irineo Montoya, Miguel Flores, and Javier Suárez Medina, in 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2001 respectively.) At the time of their arrests in the early 1990s, neither had been informed of their rights as Mexican nationals to have the Mexican consulate informed of the charges and provide legal assistance. A 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice concluded that the U.S. had violated the rights of 51 Mexican nationals, including Medellín and García, under the terms of a treaty the U.S. had signed.[64] In response to the ruling, the Bush administration issued an instruction that states comply,[65] but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it had exceeded its authority. The Supreme Court also ruled in Medellin v. Texas that the treaty was not binding on states until Congress enacted statutes to implement it, and in Leal Garcia v. Texas declined to place a stay on the executions in order to allow Congress additional time to enact such a statute. A 2008 ruling by the International Court of Justice asked the United States to place a stay on the executions, but Texas officials stated that they were not bound by international law.[66]

text: García supporters complained about the use of bite mark analysis and luminol in determining his guilt.[67] However, García accepted responsibility for the crimes and apologized before his execution.[68]

text: Regarding the García execution, Texas Governor Rick Perry stated that "If you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws."[69]


document_title: Banana

question_text: where did the first banana tree come from

question_tokens: where did the first banana tree come from

root

text: Banana

text: Description

text: The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant.[7] All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm".[8] Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem. Bananas grow in a wide variety of soils, as long as the soil is at least 60 cm deep, has good drainage and is not compacted.[9] The leaves of banana plants are composed of a "stalk" (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. The edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart.[10] Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to 'Gros Michel' at 7 m (23 ft) or more.[11][12] Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide.[1] They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond look.[13]

tag: p

text: When a banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike or inflorescence. A stem develops which grows up inside the pseudostem, carrying the immature inflorescence until eventually it emerges at the top.[14] Each pseudostem normally produces a single inflorescence, also known as the "banana heart". (More are sometimes produced; an exceptional plant in the Philippines produced five.[15]) After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots will normally have developed from the base, so that the plant as a whole is perennial. In the plantation system of cultivation, only one of the offshoots will be allowed to develop in order to maintain spacing.[16] The inflorescence contains many bracts (sometimes incorrectly referred to as petals) between rows of flowers. The female flowers (which can develop into fruit) appear in rows further up the stem (closer to the leaves) from the rows of male flowers. The ovary is inferior, meaning that the tiny petals and other flower parts appear at the tip of the ovary.[17]

text: The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called "hands"), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3–20 tiers, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh 30–50 kilograms (66–110 lb). Individual banana fruits (commonly known as a banana or "finger") average 125 grams (0.276 lb), of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter (nutrient table, lower right).

text: The fruit has been described as a "leathery berry".[18] There is a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with numerous long, thin strings (the phloem bundles), which run lengthwise between the skin and the edible inner portion. The inner part of the common yellow dessert variety can be split lengthwise into three sections that correspond to the inner portions of the three carpels by manually deforming the unopened fruit.[19] In cultivated varieties, the seeds are diminished nearly to non-existence; their remnants are tiny black specks in the interior of the fruit.[20]

text: Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive,[21] more so than most other fruits, because of their potassium content and the small amounts of the isotope potassium-40 found in naturally occurring potassium.[22] The banana equivalent dose of radiation is sometimes used in nuclear communication to compare radiation levels and exposures.[23]

text: Etymology

text: The word banana is thought to be of West African origin, possibly from the Wolof word banaana, and passed into English via Spanish or Portuguese.[24]

text: Taxonomy

text: The genus Musa was created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.[25] The name may be derived from Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, or Linnaeus may have adapted the Arabic word for banana, mauz.[26] The old biological name Musa sapientum = "Muse of the wise" arose because of homophony in Latin with the classical Muses.

text: Musa is in the family Musaceae. The APG III system assigns Musaceae to the order Zingiberales, part of the commelinid clade of the monocotyledonous flowering plants. Some 70 species of Musa were recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as of January 2013[update];[25] several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals.[27]

text: The classification of cultivated bananas has long been a problematic issue for taxonomists. Linnaeus originally placed bananas into two species based only on their uses as food: Musa sapientum for dessert bananas and Musa paradisiaca for plantains. Subsequently, further species names were added. However, this approach proved inadequate to address the sheer number of cultivars existing in the primary center of diversity of the genus, Southeast Asia. Many of these cultivars were given names which proved to be synonyms.[28]

text: In a series of papers published from 1947 onwards, Ernest Cheesman showed that Linnaeus' Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca were actually cultivars and descendants of two wild seed-producing species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, both first described by Luigi Aloysius Colla.[29] He recommended the abolition of Linnaeus's species in favor of reclassifying bananas according to three morphologically distinct groups of cultivars – those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa balbisiana, those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa acuminata, and those with characteristics that are the combination of the two.[28] Researchers Norman Simmonds and Ken Shepherd proposed a genome-based nomenclature system in 1955. This system eliminated almost all the difficulties and inconsistencies of the earlier classification of bananas based on assigning scientific names to cultivated varieties. Despite this, the original names are still recognized by some authorities today, leading to confusion.[29][30]

text: The currently accepted scientific names for most groups of cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata Colla and Musa balbisiana Colla for the ancestral species, and Musa × paradisiaca L. for the hybrid M. acuminata × M. balbisiana.[31]

text: Synonyms of M. × paradisica include:

text:
A large number of subspecific and varietial names of M. × paradisiaca, including M. p. subsp. sapientum (L.) Kuntze
Musa × dacca Horan.
Musa × sapidisiaca K.C.Jacob, nom. superfl.
Musa × sapientum L., and a large number of its varietal names, including M. × sapientum var. paradisiaca (L.) Baker, nom. illeg.

tag: ul

text: Generally, modern classifications of banana cultivars follow Simmonds and Shepherd's system. Cultivars are placed in groups based on the number of chromosomes they have and which species they are derived from. Thus the Latundan banana is placed in the AAB Group, showing that it is a triploid derived from both M. acuminata (A) and M. balbisiana (B). For a list of the cultivars classified under this system see List of banana cultivars.

text: In 2012, a team of scientists announced they had achieved a draft sequence of the genome of Musa acuminata.[32]

text: Bananas and plantains

text: In regions such as North America and Europe, Musa fruits offered for sale can be divided into "bananas" and "plantains", based on their intended use as food. Thus the banana producer and distributor Chiquita produces publicity material for the American market which says that "a plantain is not a banana". The stated differences are that plantains are more starchy and less sweet; they are eaten cooked rather than raw; they have thicker skin, which may be green, yellow or black; and they can be used at any stage of ripeness.[33] Linnaeus made the same distinction between plantains and bananas when first naming two "species" of Musa.[34] Members of the "plantain subgroup" of banana cultivars, most important as food in West Africa and Latin America, correspond to the Chiquita description, having long pointed fruit. They are described by Ploetz et al. as "true" plantains, distinct from other cooking bananas.[35] The cooking bananas of East Africa belong to a different group, the East African Highland bananas,[12] so would not qualify as "true" plantains on this definition.

text: An alternative approach divides bananas into dessert bananas and cooking bananas, with plantains being one of the subgroups of cooking bananas.[36] Triploid cultivars derived solely from M. acuminata are examples of "dessert bananas", whereas triploid cultivars derived from the hybrid between M. acuminata and M. balbinosa (in particular the plantain subgroup of the AAB Group) are "plantains".[37][38] Small farmers in Colombia grow a much wider range of cultivars than large commercial plantations. A study of these cultivars showed that they could be placed into at least three groups based on their characteristics: dessert bananas, non-plantain cooking bananas, and plantains, although there were overlaps between dessert and cooking bananas.[39]

text: In Southeast Asia – the center of diversity for bananas, both wild and cultivated – the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" does not work, according to Valmayor et al. Many bananas are used both raw and cooked. There are starchy cooking bananas which are smaller than those eaten raw. The range of colors, sizes and shapes is far wider than in those grown or sold in Africa, Europe or the Americas.[34] Southeast Asian languages do not make the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" that is made in English (and Spanish). Thus both Cavendish cultivars, the classic yellow dessert bananas, and Saba cultivars, used mainly for cooking, are called pisang in Malaysia and Indonesia, kluai in Thailand and chuoi in Vietnam.[40] Fe'i bananas, grown and eaten in the islands of the Pacific, are derived from entirely different wild species than traditional bananas and plantains. Most Fe'i bananas are cooked, but Karat bananas, which are short and squat with bright red skins, very different from the usual yellow dessert bananas, are eaten raw.[41]

text: In summary, in commerce in Europe and the Americas (although not in small-scale cultivation), it is possible to distinguish between "bananas", which are eaten raw, and "plantains", which are cooked. In other regions of the world, particularly India, Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific, there are many more kinds of banana and the two-fold distinction is not useful and not made in local languages. Plantains are one of many kinds of cooking bananas, which are not always distinct from dessert bananas.

text: Historical cultivation

text: Early cultivation

text: Farmers in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea first domesticated bananas. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence at Kuk Swamp in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 5000 BCE, and possibly to 8000 BCE.[4][43] It is likely that other species were later and independently domesticated elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is the region of primary diversity of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation in the region.[44]

text: Phytolith discoveries in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE[46] triggered an as yet unresolved debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in Madagascar around that time.[47] The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than late 6th century CE.[48] It is likely, however, that bananas were brought at least to Madagascar if not to the East African coast during the phase of Malagasy colonization of the island from South East Asia c. 400 CE.[49]

text: The banana may also have been present in isolated locations elsewhere in the Middle East on the eve of Islam. The spread of Islam was followed by far-reaching diffusion. There are numerous references to it in Islamic texts (such as poems and hadiths) beginning in the 9th century. By the 10th century the banana appears in texts from Palestine and Egypt. From there it diffused into North Africa and Muslim Iberia. During the medieval ages, bananas from Granada were considered among the best in the Arab world.[45] In 650, Islamic conquerors brought the banana to Palestine. Today, banana consumption increases significantly in Islamic countries during Ramadan, the month of daylight fasting.[50]

text: Bananas were certainly grown in the Christian Kingdom of Cyprus by the late medieval period. Writing in 1458, the Italian traveller and writer Gabriele Capodilista wrote favourably of the extensive farm produce of the estates at Episkopi, near modern-day Limassol, including the region's banana plantations.[51]

text: Bananas were introduced to the Americas by Portuguese sailors who brought the fruits from West Africa in the 16th century.[52]

text: Many wild banana species as well as cultivars exist in extraordinary diversity in India, China, and Southeast Asia.

text: There are fuzzy bananas whose skins are bubblegum pink; green-and-white striped bananas with pulp the color of orange sherbet; bananas that, when cooked, taste like strawberries. The Double Mahoi plant can produce two bunches at once. The Chinese name of the aromatic Go San Heong banana means 'You can smell it from the next mountain.' The fingers on one banana plant grow fused; another produces bunches of a thousand fingers, each only an inch long.

text: In 1999, archaeologists in London discovered what they believed to be the oldest banana in the UK, in a Tudor rubbish tip.[54]

text: Plantation cultivation in the Caribbean, Central and South America

text: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists started banana plantations in the Atlantic Islands, Brazil, and western Africa.[55] North Americans began consuming bananas on a small scale at very high prices shortly after the Civil War, though it was only in the 1880s that it became more widespread.[56] As late as the Victorian Era, bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available.[55] Jules Verne introduces bananas to his readers with detailed descriptions in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

text: The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related Western Caribbean Zone, including most of Central America. It involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with the development of refrigeration that allowed bananas to have more time between harvesting and ripening. North America shippers like Lorenzo Dow Baker and Andrew Preston, the founders of the Boston Fruit Company started this process in the 1870s, but railroad builders like Minor C Keith also participated, eventually culminating in the multi-national giant corporations like today's Chiquita Brands International and Dole.[56] These companies were monopolistic, vertically integrated (meaning they controlled growing, processing, shipping and marketing) and usually used political manipulation to build enclave economies (economies that were internally self-sufficient, virtually tax exempt, and export oriented that contribute very little to the host economy). Their political maneuvers, which gave rise to the term Banana republic for states like Honduras and Guatemala, included working with local elites and their rivalries to influence politics or playing the international interests of the United States, especially during the Cold War, to keep the political climate favorable to their interests.[57]

text: Peasant cultivation for export in the Caribbean

text: The vast majority of the world's bananas today are cultivated for family consumption or for sale on local markets. India is the world leader in this sort of production, but many other Asian and African countries where climate and soil conditions allow cultivation also host large populations of banana growers who sell at least some of their crop.[58]

text: There are peasant sector banana growers who produce for the world market in the Caribbean, however. The Windward Islands are notable for the growing, largely of Cavendish bananas, for an international market, generally in Europe but also in North America. In the Caribbean, and especially in Dominica where this sort of cultivation is widespread, holdings are in the 1–2 acre range. In many cases the farmer earns additional money from other crops, from engaging in labor outside the farm, and from a share of the earnings of relatives living overseas. This style of cultivation often was popular in the islands as bananas required little labor input and brought welcome extra income.[citation needed] Banana crops are vulnerable to destruction by high winds, such as tropical storms or cyclones.[59]

text: After the signing of the NAFTA agreements in the 1990s, however, the tide turned against peasant producers. Their costs of production were relatively high and the ending of favorable tariff and other supports, especially in the European Economic Community, made it difficult for peasant producers to compete with the bananas grown on large plantations by the well capitalized firms like Chiquita and Dole. Not only did the large companies have access to cheap labor in the areas they worked, but they were better able to afford modern agronomic advances such as fertilization. The "dollar banana" produced by these concerns made the profit margins for peasant bananas unsustainable.[citation needed]

text: Caribbean countries have sought to redress this problem by providing government supported agronomic services and helping to organize producers' cooperatives. They have also been supporters of the Fair Trade movement which seeks to balance the inequities in the world trade in commodities.[citation needed]

text: East Africa

text: Most farms supply local consumption. Cooking bananas represent a major food source and a major income source for smallhold farmers. In east Africa, highland bananas are of greatest importance as a staple food crop. In countries such as Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda per capita consumption has been estimated at 45 kilograms (99 lb) per year, the highest in the world.[citation needed]

text: Modern cultivation

text: All widely cultivated bananas today descend from the two wild bananas Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. While the original wild bananas contained large seeds, diploid or polyploid cultivars (some being hybrids) with tiny seeds are preferred for human raw fruit consumption.[60] These are propagated asexually from offshoots. The plant is allowed to produce two shoots at a time; a larger one for immediate fruiting and a smaller "sucker" or "follower" to produce fruit in 6–8 months. The life of a banana plantation is 25 years or longer, during which time the individual stools or planting sites may move slightly from their original positions as lateral rhizome formation dictates.[citation needed]

text: Cultivated bananas are parthenocarpic, i.e. the flesh of the fruit swells and ripens without its seeds being fertilized and developing. Lacking viable seeds, propagation typically involves farmers removing and transplanting part of the underground stem (called a corm). Usually this is done by carefully removing a sucker (a vertical shoot that develops from the base of the banana pseudostem) with some roots intact. However, small sympodial corms, representing not yet elongated suckers, are easier to transplant and can be left out of the ground for up to two weeks; they require minimal care and can be shipped in bulk.[citation needed]

text: It is not necessary to include the corm or root structure to propagate bananas; severed suckers without root material can be propagated in damp sand, although this takes somewhat longer.[citation needed]

text: In some countries, commercial propagation occurs by means of tissue culture. This method is preferred since it ensures disease-free planting material. When using vegetative parts such as suckers for propagation, there is a risk of transmitting diseases (especially the devastating Panama disease).[citation needed]

text: As a non-seasonal crop, bananas are available fresh year-round.[61]

text: Cavendish

text: In global commerce in 2009, by far the most important cultivars belonged to the triploid AAA group of Musa acuminata, commonly referred to as Cavendish group bananas. They accounted for the majority of banana exports,[60] despite only coming into existence in 1836.[62] The cultivars Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain (Chiquita Banana) gained popularity in the 1950s after the previous mass-produced cultivar, Gros Michel (also an AAA group cultivar), became commercially unviable due to Panama disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum which attacks the roots of the banana plant.[60] Cavendish cultivars are resistant to the Panama Disease but in 2013 there were fears that the Black Sigatoka fungus would in turn make Cavendish bananas unviable.[63]

text: Ease of transport and shelf life rather than superior taste make the Dwarf Cavendish the main export banana.[citation needed]

text: Even though it is no longer viable for large scale cultivation, Gros Michel is not extinct and is still grown in areas where Panama disease is not found.[64] Likewise, Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain are in no danger of extinction, but they may leave supermarket shelves if disease makes it impossible to supply the global market. It is unclear if any existing cultivar can replace Cavendish bananas, so various hybridisation and genetic engineering programs are attempting to create a disease-resistant, mass-market banana.[60]

text: Ripening

text: Export bananas are picked green, and ripen in special rooms upon arrival in the destination country. These rooms are air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. The vivid yellow color consumers normally associate with supermarket bananas is, in fact, caused by the artificial ripening process.[65][66] Flavor and texture are also affected by ripening temperature. Bananas are refrigerated to between 13.5 and 15 °C (56.3 and 59.0 °F) during transport. At lower temperatures, ripening permanently stalls, and the bananas turn gray as cell walls break down. The skin of ripe bananas quickly blackens in the 4 °C (39 °F) environment of a domestic refrigerator, although the fruit inside remains unaffected.

text: "Tree-ripened" Cavendish bananas have a greenish-yellow appearance which changes to a brownish-yellow as they ripen further. Although both flavor and texture of tree-ripened bananas is generally regarded as superior to any type of green-picked fruit,[citation needed] this reduces shelf life to only 7–10 days.[citation needed]

text: Bananas can be ordered by the retailer "ungassed" (i.e. not treated with ethylene), and may show up at the supermarket fully green. Guineos verdes (green bananas) that have not been gassed will never fully ripen before becoming rotten. Instead of fresh eating, these bananas can be used for cooking, as seen in Jamaican cuisine.[67]

text: A 2008 study reported that ripe bananas fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light. This property is attributed to the degradation of chlorophyll leading to the accumulation of a fluorescent product in the skin of the fruit. The chlorophyll breakdown product is stabilized by a propionate ester group. Banana-plant leaves also fluoresce in the same way. Green bananas do not fluoresce. The study suggested that this allows animals which can see light in the ultraviolet spectrum (tetrachromats and pentachromats) to more easily detect ripened bananas.[68]

text: Storage and transport

text: Bananas must be transported over long distances from the tropics to world markets.[69] To obtain maximum shelf life, harvest comes before the fruit is mature. The fruit requires careful handling, rapid transport to ports, cooling, and refrigerated shipping. The goal is to prevent the bananas from producing their natural ripening agent, ethylene. This technology allows storage and transport for 3–4 weeks at 13 °C (55 °F). On arrival, bananas are held at about 17 °C (63 °F) and treated with a low concentration of ethylene. After a few days, the fruit begins to ripen and is distributed for final sale. Unripe bananas can not be held in home refrigerators because they suffer from the cold.[citation needed] Ripe bananas can be held for a few days at home. If bananas are too green, they can be put in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight to speed up the ripening process.[70]

text: Carbon dioxide (which bananas produce) and ethylene absorbents extend fruit life even at high temperatures. This effect can be exploited by packing banana in a polyethylene bag and including an ethylene absorbent, e.g., potassium permanganate, on an inert carrier. The bag is then sealed with a band or string. This treatment has been shown to more than double lifespans up to 3–4 weeks without the need for refrigeration.[71][72][73]

text: Production and export

text:
Production and export of bananas and plantains by country[Note 1]

Country
Millions
of tonnes
Percentage
of world
total

Table 1: Production (2012)

 India
24.9
18%

 China
10.6
8%

 Uganda
9.8
7%

 Philippines
9.2
7%

 Ecuador
7.6
5%

 Brazil
6.9
5%

 Indonesia
6.2
4%

 Colombia
5.3
4%

 Cameroon
4.9
3%

 Ghana
3.6
3%

All other countries
50.2
36%

Total world
139.2
100%

Table 2: Exports (2011)

 Ecuador
5.2
29%

 Costa Rica
1.8
10%

 Colombia
1.8
10%

 Philippines
1.6
9%

 Guatemala
1.5
8%

All other countries
6.0
34%

Total world
17.9
100%

tag: table

text: Statistics on the production and export of bananas and plantains are available from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Some countries produce statistics which distinguish between bananas and plantains, but two of the top three producers (India and China) do not, so comparisons can only be made using the total for bananas and plantains combined. The 2012 statistics (see Table 1) show that India led the world in banana production, producing around 18% of the worldwide crop of 139 million metric tonnes. Philippines was the next largest producer with around 7% of the worldwide crop. Its national data does distinguish between bananas and plantains, and shows that the latter made up over 95% of production. Ten countries produced around two thirds of the total world production.[Note 1]

text: The statistics for the export of bananas and plantains show a rather different picture (see Table 2). Total world exports at around 18 million metric tonnes amounted to only 12% of total world production; two thirds of the exports were generated by only five countries. The top three producing countries do not appear in this table, and two countries, Costa Rica and Guatemala, do not appear in the table of top producers. Only the Philippines has a consistent position in both tables. Exports were dominated by Ecuador, with 29% of the world total. Statistics for Ecuador distinguish between bananas and plantains; 93% of its exports were classified as bananas.[Note 1]

text: Bananas and plantains constitute a major staple food crop for millions of people in developing countries.[69] In most tropical countries, green (unripe) bananas used for cooking represent the main cultivars. Bananas are cooked in ways that are similar to potatoes. Both can be fried, boiled, baked, or chipped and have similar taste and texture when served. One banana provides about the same calories as one potato.[citation needed]

text: Most producers are small-scale farmers either for home consumption or local markets. Because bananas and plantains produce fruit year-round, they provide an extremely valuable food source during the hunger season (when the food from one annual/semi-annual harvest has been consumed, and the next is still to come). Bananas and plantains are therefore critical to global food security.

text: Bananas have been an important source of disagreement in the Doha Round of trade talks. A study for ICTSD showed that the new deal on EU banana import tariffs will be a boon to Latin American exporters but would trigger a drop in exports of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.[74]

text: Bananas are among the most widely consumed foods in the world. Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, and Fyffes grow their own bananas in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. Banana plantations are capital intensive and demand significant expertise. The majority of independent growers are large and wealthy landowners in these countries. Producers have attempted to raise prices via marketing them as "fair trade" or Rainforest Alliance-certified in some countries.[citation needed]

text: The banana has an extensive trade history starting with firms such as the Irish Fyffes and the US United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) at the end of the 19th century. For much of the 20th century, bananas and coffee dominated the export economies of Central America. In the 1930s, bananas and coffee made up as much as 75% of the region's exports. As late as 1960, the two crops accounted for 67% of the exports from the region. Though the two were grown in similar regions, they tended not to be distributed together. The United Fruit Company based its business almost entirely on the banana trade, because the coffee trade proved too difficult to control. The term "banana republic" has been applied to most countries in Central America, but from a strict economic perspective only Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama had economies dominated by the banana trade.[citation needed]

text: The European Union has traditionally imported many of its bananas from former European Caribbean colonies, paying guaranteed prices above global market rates (see Lomé Convention). These arrangements have now been largely withdrawn under pressure from other major trading powers, principally the United States. The withdrawal of these indirect subsidies to Caribbean producers is expected to favour the more efficient banana producers of Central America, in which American companies have an economic interest. In addition, small-scale Caribbean producers are finding it difficult to comply with increasingly strict certification requirements. Some support is being provided to Caribbean countries under the EU's Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM).[75]

text: The United States produces few bananas. A mere 14,000 tonnes (14,000 long tons; 15,000 short tons) were grown in Hawaii in 2001.[76] Bananas were once grown in Florida[77] and southern California.[78] In 2012, the United States imported 27 percent of all bananas traded internationally, a total of approximately 4,350,000 tonnes (4,280,000 long tons; 4,800,000 short tons) of bananas with an import cost of almost $4.3 billion (equivalent to $4.5 billion in 2016).[79]

text: In March 2014 it was announced that Fyffes and Chiquita would merge to create the world's largest banana company, worth about $1bn (£597m). The new firm, named ChiquitaFyffes, is expected to sell about 160 million boxes of bananas annually.[80]

text: Pests, diseases, and natural disasters

text: While in no danger of outright extinction, the most common edible banana cultivar Cavendish (extremely popular in Europe and the Americas) could become unviable for large-scale cultivation in the next 10–20 years. Its predecessor 'Gros Michel', discovered in the 1820s, suffered this fate. Like almost all bananas, Cavendish lacks genetic diversity, which makes it vulnerable to diseases, threatening both commercial cultivation and small-scale subsistence farming.[81][82] Some commentators remarked that those variants which could replace what much of the world considers a "typical banana" are so different that most people would not consider them the same fruit, and blame the decline of the banana on monogenetic cultivation driven by short-term commercial motives.[57]

text: Panama disease

text: Panama disease is caused by a fusarium soil fungus (Race 1), which enters the plants through the roots and travels with water into the trunk and leaves, producing gels and gums that cut off the flow of water and nutrients, causing the plant to wilt, and exposing the rest of the plant to lethal amounts of sunlight. Prior to 1960, almost all commercial banana production centered on "Gros Michel", which was highly susceptible.[83] Cavendish was chosen as the replacement for Gros Michel because, among resistant cultivars, it produces the highest quality fruit. However, more care is required for shipping the Cavendish, and its quality compared to Gros Michel is debated.[by whom?][citation needed]

text: According to current sources, a deadly form of Panama disease is infecting Cavendish. All plants are genetically identical, which prevents evolution of disease resistance. Researchers are examining hundreds of wild varieties for resistance.[83]

text: Tropical race 4

text: Tropical race 4 (TR4) is a reinvigorated strain of Panama disease first discovered in 1993. This virulent form of fusarium wilt has wiped out Cavendish in several southeast Asian countries. It has yet to reach the Americas; however, soil fungi can easily be carried on boots, clothing, or tools. This is how TR4 travels and is its most likely route into Latin America. Cavendish is highly susceptible to TR4, and over time, Cavendish is almost certain to be eliminated from commercial production by this disease. The only known defense to TR4 is genetic resistance.[84]

text: Black sigatoka

text: Black sigatoka is a fungal leaf spot disease first observed in Fiji in 1963 or 1964. Black Sigatoka (also known as black leaf streak) has spread to banana plantations throughout the tropics from infected banana leaves that were used as packing material. It affects all main cultivars of bananas and plantains (including the Cavendish cultivars[63]), impeding photosynthesis by blackening parts of the leaves, eventually killing the entire leaf. Starved for energy, fruit production falls by 50% or more, and the bananas that do grow ripen prematurely, making them unsuitable for export. The fungus has shown ever-increasing resistance to treatment, with the current expense for treating 1 hectare (2.5 acres) exceeding $1,000 per year. In addition to the expense, there is the question of how long intensive spraying can be environmentally justified. Several resistant cultivars of banana have been developed, but none has yet received commercial acceptance due to taste and texture issues.[citation needed]

text: In East Africa

text: With the arrival of black sigatoka, banana production in eastern Africa fell by over 40%. For example, during the 1970s, Uganda produced 15 to 20 tonnes (15 to 20 long tons; 17 to 22 short tons) of bananas per hectare. Today, production has fallen to only 6 tonnes (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons) per hectare.[citation needed]

text: The situation has started to improve as new disease-resistant cultivars have been developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda (NARO), such as FHIA-17 (known in Uganda as the Kabana 3). These new cultivars taste different from the Cabana banana, which has slowed their acceptance by local farmers. However, by adding mulch and manure to the soil around the base of the plant, these new cultivars have substantially increased yields in the areas where they have been tried.[citation needed]

text: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and NARO, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and CGIAR have started trials for genetically modified bananas that are resistant to both Black sigatoka and banana weevils. It is developing cultivars specifically for smallholder and subsistence farmers.[citation needed]

text: Banana bunchy top virus

text: Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) jumps from plant to plant using aphids. It stunts leaves, resulting in a "bunched" appearance. Generally, an infected plant does not produce fruit, although mild strains exist which allow some production. These mild strains are often mistaken for malnourishment, or a disease other than BBTV. There is no cure; however, its effect can be minimized by planting only tissue-cultured plants (in vitro propagation), controlling aphids, and immediately removing and destroying infected plants.[citation needed]

text: Banana bacterial wilt

text: Banana bacterial wilt (BBW) is a bacterial disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum.[85] After being originally identified on a close relative of bananas, Ensete ventricosum, in Ethiopia in the 1960s,[86] BBW occurred in Uganda in 2001 affecting all banana cultivars. Since then BBW has been diagnosed in Central and East Africa including the banana growing regions of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, and Uganda.[87]

text: Nutrition

text:
Bananas, raw (Daily Value)

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy
371 kJ (89 kcal)

Carbohydrates

22.84 g

Sugars
12.23 g

Dietary fiber
2.6 g

Fat

0.33 g

Protein

1.09 g

Vitamins

Thiamine (B1)

(3%)
0.031 mg

Riboflavin (B2)

(6%)
0.073 mg

Niacin (B3)

(4%)
0.665 mg

Pantothenic acid (B5)

(7%)
0.334 mg

Vitamin B6

(31%)
0.4 mg

Folate (B9)

(5%)
20 μg

Choline

(2%)
9.8 mg

Vitamin C

(10%)
8.7 mg

Minerals

Iron

(2%)
0.26 mg

Magnesium

(8%)
27 mg

Manganese

(13%)
0.27 mg

Phosphorus

(3%)
22 mg

Potassium

(8%)
358 mg

Sodium

(0%)
1 mg

Zinc

(2%)
0.15 mg

Other constituents

Water
74.91 g

Link to USDA Database entry

Units
μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
IU = International units

Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient Database

text: Raw bananas are 75% water, 23% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contain negligible fat (table). In a 100 gram amount, bananas supply 89 Calories and are a rich source of vitamin B6, providing 31% of the US recommended Daily Value, and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and dietary fiber (table).

text: Although bananas are commonly thought to supply exceptional potassium content,[88] their actual potassium content is relatively low per typical food serving at only 8% of the US recommended Daily Value (table). Vegetables with higher potassium content than raw dessert bananas (358 mg per 100 grams) include raw spinach (558 mg per 100 grams), baked potatoes without skin (391 mg per 100 grams), cooked soybeans (539 mg per 100 grams), grilled portabella mushrooms (437 mg per 100 grams) and processed tomato sauces (413–439 mg per 100 grams). Raw plantains contain 499 mg potassium per 100 grams. Dehydrated dessert bananas or banana powder contain 1491 mg potassium per 100 grams.[89]

text: Individuals with a latex allergy may experience a reaction to bananas.[90]

text: Culture

text: Food and cooking

text: Fruit

text: Bananas are a staple starch for many tropical populations. Depending upon cultivar and ripeness, the flesh can vary in taste from starchy to sweet, and texture from firm to mushy. Both the skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked. The primary component of the aroma of fresh bananas is isoamyl acetate (also known as banana oil), which, along with several other compounds such as butyl acetate and isobutyl acetate, is a significant contributor to banana flavor.[91][92][93]

text: During the ripening process, bananas produce the gas ethylene, which acts as a plant hormone and indirectly affects the flavor. Among other things, ethylene stimulates the formation of amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar, influencing the taste of bananas. The greener, less ripe bananas contain higher levels of starch and, consequently, have a "starchier" taste. On the other hand, yellow bananas taste sweeter due to higher sugar concentrations. Furthermore, ethylene signals the production of pectinase, an enzyme which breaks down the pectin between the cells of the banana, causing the banana to soften as it ripens.[94][95]

text: Bananas are eaten deep fried, baked in their skin in a split bamboo, or steamed in glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Bananas can be made into jam. Banana pancakes are popular amongst backpackers and other travelers in South Asia and Southeast Asia. This has elicited the expression Banana Pancake Trail for those places in Asia that cater to this group of travelers. Banana chips are a snack produced from sliced dehydrated or fried banana or plantain, which have a dark brown color and an intense banana taste. Dried bananas are also ground to make banana flour. Extracting juice is difficult, because when a banana is compressed, it simply turns to pulp. Bananas feature prominently in Philippine cuisine, being part of traditional dishes and desserts like maruya, turón, and halo-halo or saba con yelo. Most of these dishes use the Saba or Cardaba banana cultivar. Bananas are also commonly used in cuisine in the South-Indian state of Kerala, where they are steamed (puzhungiyathu), made into curries,[96] fried into chips (upperi)[97] or fried in batter (pazhampori).[98] Pisang goreng, bananas fried with batter similar to the Filipino maruya or Kerala pazhampori, is a popular dessert in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. A similar dish is known in the United Kingdom and United States as banana fritters.

text: Plantains are used in various stews and curries or cooked, baked or mashed in much the same way as potatoes, such as the Pazham Pachadi prepared in Kerala.[96]

text: Seeded bananas (Musa balbisiana), one of the forerunners of the common domesticated banana,[99] are sold in markets in Indonesia.[citation needed]

text: Flower

text: Banana hearts are used as a vegetable[100] in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, either raw or steamed with dips or cooked in soups, curries and fried foods.[101] The flavor resembles that of artichoke. As with artichokes, both the fleshy part of the bracts and the heart are edible.[102]

text: Leaves

text: Banana leaves are large, flexible, and waterproof. They are often used as ecologically friendly disposable food containers or as "plates" in South Asia and several Southeast Asian countries. In Indonesian cuisine, banana leaf is employed in cooking method called pepes and botok; the banana leaf packages containing food ingredients and spices are cooked on steam, in boiled water or grilled on charcoal. In the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in every occasion the food must be served in a banana leaf and as a part of the food a banana is served. Steamed with dishes they impart a subtle sweet flavor. They often serve as a wrapping for grilling food. The leaves contain the juices, protect food from burning and add a subtle flavor.[103] In Tamil Nadu (India) leaves are fully dried and used as packing material for food stuffs and also making cups to hold liquid foods. In Central American countries, banana leaves are often used as wrappers for tamales.[citation needed]

text: Trunk

text: The tender core of the banana plant's trunk is also used in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, and notably in the Burmese dish mohinga.

text: Fiber

text: Textiles

text: Banana fiber harvested from the pseudostems and leaves of the plant has been used for textiles in Asia since at least the 13th century. Both fruit-bearing and fibrous varieties of the banana plant have been used.[104] In the Japanese system Kijōka-bashōfu, leaves and shoots are cut from the plant periodically to ensure softness. Harvested shoots are first boiled in lye to prepare fibers for yarn-making. These banana shoots produce fibers of varying degrees of softness, yielding yarns and textiles with differing qualities for specific uses. For example, the outermost fibers of the shoots are the coarsest, and are suitable for tablecloths, while the softest innermost fibers are desirable for kimono and kamishimo. This traditional Japanese cloth-making process requires many steps, all performed by hand.[105]

text: In a Nepalese system the trunk is harvested instead, and small pieces are subjected to a softening process, mechanical fiber extraction, bleaching and drying. After that, the fibers are sent to the Kathmandu Valley for use in rugs with a silk-like texture. These banana fiber rugs are woven by traditional Nepalese hand-knotting methods, and are sold RugMark certified.[citation needed]

text: In South Indian state of Tamil Nadu after harvesting for fruit the trunk (outer layer of the shoot) is made into fine thread used in making of flower garlands instead of thread.[citation needed]

text: In India, a banana fiber separator machine has been developed, which takes the agricultural waste of local banana harvests and extracts strands of the fiber.[106]

text: Paper

text: Banana fiber is used in the production of banana paper. Banana paper is made from two different parts: the bark of the banana plant, mainly used for artistic purposes, or from the fibers of the stem and non-usable fruits. The paper is either hand-made or by industrial process.[107]

text: Cultural roles

text: Arts

text:
The song "Yes! We Have No Bananas" was written by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn and originally released in 1923; for many decades, it was the best-selling sheet music in history. Since then the song has been rerecorded several times and has been particularly popular during banana shortages.[108][109]
A person slipping on a banana peel has been a staple of physical comedy for generations. An American comedy recording from 1910 features a popular character of the time, "Uncle Josh", claiming to describe his own such incident:[110]

text: Now I don't think much of the man that throws a banana peelin' on the sidewalk, and I don't think much of the banana peel that throws a man on the sidewalk neither ... my foot hit the bananer peelin' and I went up in the air, and I come down ker-plunk, jist as I was pickin' myself up a little boy come runnin' across the street ... he says, "Oh mister, won't you please do that agin? My little brother didn't see you do it."

text:
The poet Bashō is named after the Japanese word for a banana plant. The "bashō" planted in his garden by a grateful student became a source of inspiration to his poetry, as well as a symbol of his life and home.[111]
The cover artwork for the debut album of The Velvet Underground features a banana made by Andy Warhol. On the original vinyl LP version, the design allowed the listener to "peel" this banana to find a pink, peeled phallic banana on the inside.[112]

text: Religion and popular beliefs

text: In Burma, bunches of green bananas surrounding a green coconut in a tray form an important part of traditional offerings to the Buddha and the Nats.[citation needed]

text: In all the important festivals and occasions of Hindus, the serving of bananas plays a prominent part. Traditionally in Tamil marriages, banana plants are tied on both sides of the entrance of houses to bless the newlyweds to be useful to each other.[citation needed] The banana is one of three fruits with this significance, the others being mango and jack fruit.[citation needed]

text: In Thailand, it is believed that a certain type of banana plants may be inhabited by a spirit, Nang Tani, a type of ghost related to trees and similar plants that manifests itself as a young woman.[113] Often people tie a length of colored satin cloth around the pseudostem of the banana plants.[114]

text: In Malay folklore, the ghost known as Pontianak is associated with banana plants (pokok pisang), and its spirit is said to reside in them during the day.[115]

text: Unicode

text: The Unicode standard includes the emoji character U+1F34C 🍌 BANANA (HTML 🍌).[116]

text: Other uses

text:
The large leaves may be used as umbrellas.[103]
Banana peel may have capability to extract heavy metal contamination from river water, similar to other purification materials.[117][118] In 2007, banana peel powder was tested as a means of filtration for heavy metals and radionuclides occurring in water produced by the nuclear and fertilizer industries (cadmium contaminant is present in phosphates). When added and thoroughly mixed for 40 minutes, the powder can remove roughly 65% of heavy metals, and this can be repeated.

text: Gallery

text:
Peeled, whole, and longitudinal section

A bunch of Cavendish bananas

Kilawin na pusô ng saging, a Filipino dish using banana flowers

Nicaraguan Nacatamales, in banana leaves, ready to be steamed

Kaeng yuak is a northern Thai curry made with the core of the banana plant

Pisang goreng fried banana coated in batter, popular snack in Indonesia

Banana in sweet gravy, known as pengat pisang in Malaysia.

Banana 'tree' showing fruit and inflorescence.

Banana inflorescence, partially opened

Female flowers have petals and other flower parts at the tip of the ovary

Wild banana with flowers and stem growing in reverse direction seen in Kodagu, India

text: Notes

text: ^ Jump up to: a b c The figures in the tables were derived from: "FAOSTAT". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.  The datasets for bananas and plantains for 2012 (export dataset 2011) were downloaded and combined (the two are not distinguished in many cases). Totals and percentages were then calculated. The number of countries shown was chosen to account for a minimum of 66% of the world total.

tag: ol


document_title: The House I Live In (1945 film)

question_text: who wrote the song the house i live in

question_tokens: who wrote the song the house i live in

text: The House I Live In (1945 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Sinatra, apparently playing himself, takes a break from a recording session and steps outside to smoke a cigarette. He sees more than ten boys chasing a Jewish boy and intervenes, first with dialogue, then with a short speech. His main points are that we are "all" Americans and that one American's blood is as good as another's and that all our religions are to be respected equally.

text: Title song[edit]

text: The song originally appeared in the musical revue, Let Freedom Sing, which opened on Broadway on October 5, 1942. Brooks Atkinson wrote in the New York Times: "Although Mordecai Bauman does not sing it particularly well, he sings it with earnest sincerity, without feeling that he must imitate youth by blasting the voice amplifying system and cutting a rug."[3]

text: In the film, Sinatra sings the title song. His recording became a national hit. The music was written by Earl Robinson. Robinson was later blacklisted during the McCarthy era for being a member of the Communist Party. He also wrote campaign songs for the presidential campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry A. Wallace, and, in 1984, Jesse Jackson. The lyrics were written in 1943 by Abel Meeropol[4] under the pen name Lewis Allan. In 1957 Meeropol adopted two boys, Michael and Robert, who had been orphaned when their parents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953.[4] Meeropol was enraged that the second verse of the song was not used in the film. When the film premiered, he protested against the deletion of the verse referring to "my neighbors white and black".

text: The song was memorably covered in later years by Paul Robeson,[5] Mahalia Jackson, and Josh White. Sam Cooke also covered it. Kim Weston included it on her second post-Motown album This Is America (1968). Sinatra continued to include it in his repertory for decades. He performed it during a state dinner at the White House during the Nixon administration[6] at the 1985 inaugural ceremonies of Ronald Reagan, and at the ceremony marking the centenary of the Statue of Liberty that same year.[4] Bill Cosby used a recording of the song to open some of his shows in 2002.

text: The song figures prominently in Arch Oboler's radio play "The House I Live In," which aired on April 26, 1945.[7]