Bananas! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Southeast Asia

Horticulturists have traced the origin of the banana back to the Indo-Malaysian jungles of Southeast Asia. Bananas were carried west by travelers and traders. Early travelers carried banana roots with them as they migrated into the Middle East and Africa.

In 1482, bananas were discovered by Portuguese explorers in West Africa, who shared their discovery with the Spanish. According to Spanish history, Friar Tomas de Berlanga was responsible for bringing the first bananas to the Western Hemisphere when he sailed to the West Indies in 1516. From there they were carried into South and Central America, and then into North America.

Answer: herb

That's right. Banana plants are actually classified as perennial herbs, and fall into the same family (Musaceae) as palms, lilies, and orchids. They are the largest plants without woody stems (which, incidentally, is a defining characteristic of herbs).

The banana plant grows from an underground rhizome or bulb, rather than from a seed. Early travelers would actually carry parts of the plant's rhizome with them on their journeys.

Answer: hands

In Arabic, a single banana is known as a finger (the Arabic word for 'finger' is 'banan'), and a cluster is called a hand. Western workers and agriculturists have adopted these terms to refer to the fruit. The term 'hand' is not usually applied to a bunch of less than ten fingers. These are simply called clusters.

Answer: 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition

The 1876 Centennial Exposition, officially called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Sweet bananas were all the rage at the Expo. Each banana was wrapped in colored tinfoil and sold to patrons for a hefty 10 cents.

Incidentally, Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone at this same fair. Heinz ketchup and the Remington typewriter were also first displayed at the 1876 Expo. Today, bananas are America's number one selling fruit, with 96 percent of households purchasing bananas at least once a month.

Answer: berry

Technically, the banana is a berry. Berries are identified as having a fleshy pericarp, though the skin is sometimes tough, and as having one or more seeds. Although modern cultivars are largely seedless, bananas were originally many-seeded fruit. They are sometimes termed 'baccate' (berry-like).

The modern banana fruit is a seedless, parthenocarpic (produced without pollination and fertilization) berry. Apples and pears, and other members of the Rose family, are classified as pome, citrus fruits as hesperidium, and stone fruit (e.g. peaches and plums) as drupe.

Answer: Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster is a dessert consisting of bananas and sauce over vanilla ice cream. The bananas are cooked in a concoction of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, followed by addition of dark rum and banana liqueur. The alcohol is then ignited, and the bananas and sauce are served over the ice cream.

Banania is a chocolate drink made from banana flour, barley, cocoa, and sugar. Banh chuoi is a Vietnamese sweet banana cake or bread pudding. Lepat pisang (steamed banana parcels) is steamed mashed banana with a grated coconut filling.

Answer: sodium

One banana contains 11 percent of the potassium and 16 percent of the dietary fiber needed each day for good health. It also contains 15 percent of the vitamin C requirement and 20 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin B6. Bananas contain little to no sodium, cholesterol, or fat.

Answer: Seal in a polyethylene bag with an ethylene absorbent.

Researchers in Trinidad and Australia have clearly shown that post-harvest refrigeration is not necessary to extend the life of bananas. The reports show that the presence of carbon-dioxide and the removal of ethylene (both of which are naturally produced by the fruit) can extend the life of the fruit even at higher temperatures. Bananas can be sealed in polyethylene bags with an ethylene absorbent like potassium permanganate (Condy's Crystals). The treatment effectively doubles the life of the fruit, and allows for a broader temperature range. These results have been confirmed by researchers in several other countries.

It has also been noted that unripe bananas should not be stored in home refrigerators as they suffer from the cold. Some bananas can be stored in this way for a few days after ripening has begun. Forced-air or pressurized rooms are used commercially to control facilitate ripening of bananas.

Answer: Iceland

Iceland's banana crops are grown in biospheres or greenhouses heated by water from geothermal springs. The warm water is used to heat the soil. Geothermal energy is also harnessed to power the greenhouses (for lighting during the dark winter months). Hveragerdi is particularly well-known for its banana farms and exports.

Answer: The Khoisan people of South Africa believed their ancestors inhabited banana trees.

Natives of Poso, a district in Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), believe that the sky was near the earth in the beginning, and that the Creator used to let down to men gifts at the end of a rope. When the Creator let down a stone, the first parents refused the gift, and a banana was let down instead. The first parents accepted the banana, but there was a consequence of their choice. Their lives would be like the life of a banana. When a banana tree bears offspring, the parent stem dies; even so human parents would die and their children replace them. Had the first parents chosen stone, their lives would have been changeless and immortal.

Scholars of the Koran tend to favor the banana as being the forbidden fruit, while Jewish scholars favor the pomegranate, and Christian scholars tend to favor the apple.

The Hawaain God Kanaloa is said to have come from Tahiti and was himself a banana planter. Hawaains also believed bananas were symbolic of man and would sometimes offer up banana stalks in place of human sacrifice.