1083
Banana
(lemmy.nz)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules
One single plant, cloned thousands of times. Easily devastated by disease.
So they can feed disease too? Is there anything bananas can't do?
Rebound from a viral pandemic, RIP Gros Michel
Only heard about those via my dad, never got to try one..
They aren't extinct, they just aren't commercially viable to grow on large scales any more. A few isolated pockets of the trees survived the blight. A quick web search will turn up someone selling some if you really want to try them but like the other poster said if you've tried fake banana flavor you've tried gros michel.
That's a myth about the flavour. Although TIL they do smell strongly like artificial banana flavour.
if you've ever had banana laffy taffy you've had the artificially created flavor of one.
or banana jelly beans.
And I find it preferable to the real thing
You can order them from Hawaii (or maybe you have to physically be there).
It's just no longer worth mass producing and shipping any more due to the potential to lose your entire crop.
You'd reminded me that I still wanted to try these, someday, and I went looking, again, for if there was an easier means (other than travelling to Hawaii); I found this place that delivers within the contiguous states: https://miamifruit.org/products/gros-michel-banana-box-order. If you had wanted to try one; more expensive, due to the fragility of the crop, but viable.
Thanks for that, but holy crap that's expensive
😄
That’s only the Cavendish, there are other varieties of banana. I was recently in Hawai’i and got to try an Apple Banana that had been grown there.
In Southeast Asia we have lots of banana varieties that we regularly eat.
Picked by slaves.
just like the previous, gros michael, the cavendish is susceptible to a fungal/bacterial disease. Wild type are pratically resistant, or a different species. but they often have that unslightly seeds.
also WATERMelons, figs, oranges.
all the seeded varieties can hybridize, or can cross pollinate with other plants. oranges, often have to use the wild "trifoliate" orange to grow better by grafting onto it. the trifoliate is pretty unique as its very hardy and cold tolerant, also possess defensive spines.
Millions at least