Dwarf Cavendish Banana

Womenscorner Desk
November 4, 2020

The Dwarf Cavendish banana may be a widely grown and commercially important Cavendish cultivar. The name "Dwarf Cavendish" is in regard to the peak of the pseudostem, not the fruit. Young plants have maroon or purple blotches on their leaves but quickly lose them as they mature. it's one among the foremost commonly planted banana varieties from the Cavendish group, and therefore the main source of economic Cavendish bananas along side Grand Nain.

Cavendish bananas were named after William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. Though not the primary known banana specimens in Europe, around 1834 Cavendish received a shipment of bananas courtesy of the chaplain of Alton Towers (then the seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury). His gardener, Sir Paxton cultivated them within the greenhouses of Chatsworth House. The plants were botanically described by Paxton as Musa cavendishii, after the Duke.

The Chatsworth bananas were shipped off to varied places within the Pacific round the 1850s. it's believed that a number of them may have ended up within the Canary Islands, though other authors believe that the bananas within the Canary Islands had been there since the fifteenth century and had been introduced through other means, namely by early Portuguese explorers who obtained them from West Africa and were later liable for spreading them to the Caribbean. African bananas successively were introduced from Southeast Asia into Madagascar by early Austronesian sailors. In 1888, bananas from the Canary Islands were imported into England by Thomas Fyffe. These bananas are now known to belong to the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar.

Dwarf Cavendish leaves are broad with short petioles. Its shortness makes it stable, wind-resistant, and easier to manage. This, additionally to its fast rate of growth, makes it ideal for plantation cultivation. An easily recognizable characteristic of this cultivar is that the male bracts and flowers aren't shed. The fruits of the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar range from about 15 to 25 cm long , and are thin skinned. Each plant can digest to 90 fingers.

Origin- Canary Islands