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A banana is the common name for a type of fruit and also the name for the herbaceous plants that grow it. These plants belong to the genus Musa. They are mostly found in the tropical region of southeast Asia. They are considered to be berries.[1]
Historians think the first people to grow bananas for food lived in Papua New Guinea.[2] Today, they are grown in tropical regions around the world.[3] Most banana plants are grown for their fruits, which are a type of berry. Some are grown as ornamental plants, or for their fibres.
There are about 110 different types of bananas. In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to the soft and sweet kind, also known as dessert bananas. Other kinds, or cultivars, of bananas have a firmer, starchier fruit. Those are usually called plantains. Plantains are mostly used for cooking or fibre.
Other than being used as food, beer can be made by fermenting the juice of certain cultivars in Africa, known as beer bananas.[4] The ash of bananas can be used to make soap.[4] In Asia, bananas are often planted to provide shade to plants that like shade, for example coffee, cocoa, nutmeg or black pepper.[4] Because of this, banana plants can often be found in plantations of other crops.
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