Are you wondering how bananas grow? While we all love to eat bananas, not many of us have seen banana trees in their natural habitat!

Banana trees are fast-growing tropical plants with long broad leaves. Banana trees are usually about 15 feet tall, but there are dwarf varieties that are more like 10 feet tall (and giant ones that tower over 20 feet!). Banana trees are also not true woody trees as they are botanically classified as herbaceous plants (and are the largest flowering herbaceous plants in the world)

Read on to learn more about how banana trees grow!

Banana tree showing leaves, heart, fruit cluster

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What are banana trees?

Banana trees are herbaceous perennial tropical plants from the Genus Musa, specifically Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and their hybrids. Generally growing to about 15 feet tall, these vigorous plants flower in clusters that develop into bunches of bananas when pollinated. Banana trees are native to tropical & subtropical Asia.

According to the USDA, the dessert banana is the most popular fresh fruit in America. It is something of a staple food, with the average consumer eating 13 pounds every year. Despite its popularity, many Americans have never seen a banana tree in person, as bananas mostly grow in many tropical countries, where the climate is moist, but frosts are rare.

“The banana is a fast-growing plant consisting of one or more pseudostems (upright, trunk-like structures) formed by tightly packed concentric layers of leaf sheaths, an underground rhizome, and a fibrous root system. The entire plant is called a mat. The pseudostem constitutes the functional trunk which supports the leaves and the flower and fruit bearing stalk.”
Banana Growing in the Florida Home Landscape, University of Florida

Banana tree domestication and history

The common banana is believed to have been domesticated in the Papua New Guinea region nearly 10,000 years ago. Bananas are not commercially grown in America, so they must be imported, which did not become common until the early 1900s. It is possible to grow a banana tree in a personal garden, even for those living in temperate regions.

Trunks of banana trees

Banana trees, lacking wooden bark, are not technically trees as they are not true woody plants. Instead, they are green-leaf herbaceous plants. The part that looks like a trunk or a stem is actually made of tightly-packed, overlapping leaves.

The banana plant is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world, able to grow five feet in a single day under the right conditions. Some varieties can grow to reach a total height of over 20 feet.

Leaves of banana trees

From the top of the banana plant, very large spear-shaped leaves emerge from the stem, each leaf blade measuring up to two feet wide and nine feet long. These leaves easily split in the wind, giving the leaf a look similar to a palm frond.

Fruit of banana trees

Once banana plants reach maturity and can produce fruit, a flower stem will emerge near the top of the adult plant. This is called the banana heart, and at the base of this heart will be the cluster of banana fruit. Each mature banana plant produces up to 200 banana fruits within a year. Once the fruit matures, the banana stem dies while the roots continue to live. This makes them perennial herbs, which grow back each year.

Our common bananas have no fruit seeds

The fruit of banana plants is technically a berry, having a fleshy fruit with seeds and no pit.

Native, wild banana trees have a fruit that contains a lot of hard, pea-sized black seeds. The flesh around the banana seed is edible, but there isn’t a lot of flesh in each fruit. Eating wild bananas is tedious.

Over time, through selective reproduction, humans have changed the genetics of the commercial banana tree to eliminate banana seeds from the fruit. While still considered a berry, the modern banana is seedless and sterile. Since they do not have viable seeds, a grocery store banana cannot sprout and grow banana plants.

How do banana trees grow?

When the banana fruit cluster of a tree is harvested, the leaves and stem die, but the roots of the mother plant stay alive. New stem sprouts emerge from the main banana plant roots, which will grow into a new banana tree, and the life cycle will continue.

It is common to find a young plant growing near the bottom of an adult. A farmer will often cut down the dying stem after harvest and let the new baby plants grow. In 6-10 months, the new plant will be ready to produce another banana bunch.

Farmers can increase the number of trees they are growing by digging up sprouts, or pups, and transplanting them to a new planting site. This is asexual reproduction via the division of the parent plant.

Bananas in your garden

Commercial banana farms do not thrive in America because, according to New Mexico State University, the banana tree is not tolerant to cold weather. The tree stops growing if the temperatures drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, the fruit gets damaged at around 32 degrees, and the banana rhizome, or collection of roots dies at around 22 degrees.

Homeowners in southern climates may be able to grow bananas in their garden, provided measures are taken to protect bananas in the rare case the temperatures fall to freezing. This may include bringing them inside, covering them, or applying heat lights.

Dwarf cavendish banana tree — Young dwarf cavendish banana tree

A more popular option for American gardeners, according to the University of Florida, is to plant an ornamental banana tree, a different species than the banana grown commercially. Ornamental banana trees have the same tropical look as commercial trees but do not produce edible fruit. The good news is that the ornamental banana is resistant to freezing temperatures, making it possible for folks outside tropical regions to grow a banana tree in their garden.

How do banana trees grow?