Editing Banana (section)

=== Taxonomy ===

{{further|List of banana cultivars}}

[[File:Nedravazhakola.jpg|right|thumb|''Musa'' 'Nendran' [[cultivar]], grown widely in the Indian state of [[Kerala]] ]]

The genus ''[[Musa (genus)|Musa]]'' was created by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in 1753.<ref name="Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew">{{Cite web |title=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families |publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:327926-2  |access-date=January 6, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325134327/https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:327926-2 |archive-date=25 March 2023 }}</ref> The name may be derived from [[Antonius Musa]], physician to the Emperor [[Augustus]], or Linnaeus may have adapted the Arabic word for banana, ''[[wikt:موز|mauz]]''.<ref name="Hyam-1995">{{Cite book |last1=Hyam |first1=R. |last2=Pankhurst |first2=R.J. |date=1995 |title=Plants and their names : a concise dictionary |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-866189-4 |page=329}}</ref> The ultimate origin of ''musa'' may be in the [[Trans–New Guinea languages]], which have words similar to "#muku"; from there the name was borrowed into the [[Austronesian languages]] and across Asia, accompanying the cultivation of the banana as it was brought to new areas, via the [[Dravidian languages]] of India, into Arabic as a ''[[Wanderwort]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schapper |first=Antoinette |chapter=Farming and the Trans-New Guinea family |editor1-last=Robbeets |editor1-first=Martine |editor2-last=Savelyev |editor2-first=Alexander |title=Language dispersal beyond farming |year=2017 |publisher=[[John Benjamins Publishing Company]] |pages=155–181 |isbn=978-90-272-1255-9 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/29648/9789027264640.pdf?sequence=1#page=170}} which (p. 169) cites {{cite journal |last=Blench |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Blench |title=Things your classics master never told you: a borrowing from Trans New Guinea languages into Latin |url=https://www.academia.edu/25619010 |website=Academia.edu |date=2016}}</ref> The word "banana" is thought to be of West African origin, possibly from the [[Wolof language|Wolof]] word {{lang|wo|[[wikt:banaana|banaana]]}}, and passed into [[English language|English]] via [[Spanish language|Spanish]] or [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]].<ref name="OnlineEtymologyDictionary">{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=banana |title=Banana |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=August 5, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728085438/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=banana |archive-date=July 28, 2011  }}</ref>

''Musa'' is the type genus in the family [[Musaceae]]. The [[APG III system]] assigns Musaceae to the order [[Zingiberales]], part of the [[commelinid]] clade of the [[monocotyledon]]ous flowering plants. Some 70 species of ''Musa'' were recognized by the [[World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]] {{as of|2013|January|lc=yes}};<ref name="Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew"/> several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals.<ref name="Bailey-1916">{{cite book |first=Liberty Hyde |last=Bailey |title=The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |date=1916 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZMDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2076 |pages=2076–2079 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222184837/https://books.google.com/books?id=uZMDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2076 |archive-date=February 22, 2017  }}</ref>

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 [[Plantain (true)|plantains]]. More species names were added, but this approach proved to be inadequate for the number of [[cultivar]]s in the primary [[center of diversity]] of the genus, Southeast Asia. Many of these cultivars were given names that were later discovered to be [[Synonym (taxonomy)|synonyms]].{{sfn|Valmayor|Jamaluddin|Silayoi|Kusumo|2000}}

In a series of papers published from 1947 onward, Ernest Cheesman showed that Linnaeus's ''Musa sapientum'' and ''Musa paradisiaca'' were cultivars and descendants of two wild seed-producing species, ''[[Musa acuminata]]'' and ''[[Musa balbisiana]]'', both first described by [[Luigi Aloysius Colla]].<ref name="Stover-1987">{{harvnb|Stover|Simmonds|1987|loc=Chapter 4 (genomic classification)}}</ref>  Cheesman 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 of both.{{sfn|Valmayor|Jamaluddin|Silayoi|Kusumo|2000}} 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, leading to confusion.<ref name="Stover-1987"/><ref name="Porcher-2002">{{cite web |url=http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Musa.html |title=Sorting Musa names |first=Michel H. |last=Porcher |date=July 19, 2002 |publisher=The University of Melbourne |access-date=January 11, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302130718/http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Musa.html |archive-date=March 2, 2011  }}</ref>

The accepted [[Botanical name|scientific names]] for most groups of cultivated bananas are ''Musa acuminata'' <small>Colla</small> and ''Musa balbisiana'' <small>Colla</small> for the ancestral species, and [[Musa × paradisiaca|''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'']] <small>L.</small> for the hybrid of the two.<ref name="World Checklist of Selected Plant Families">{{Cite web |title=''Musa paradisiaca'' |website=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families |publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=254888 |access-date=January 6, 2013 |archive-date=April 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429155616/http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=254888 |url-status=live }}</ref>

An unusual feature of the genetics of the banana is that [[chloroplast DNA]] is inherited maternally, while [[mitochondrial DNA]] is inherited paternally. This facilitates taxonomic study of species and subspecies relationships.<ref name="Donohue-2010">{{cite journal |last1=Donohue |first1=Mark |last2=Denham |first2=Tim |title=Farming and Language in Island Southeast Asia: Reframing Austronesian History |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=51 |issue=2 |year=2010 |doi=10.1086/650991 |pages=223–256}}</ref>