Tuesday, November 04, 2008

a follow-up...

Believe it or not!!! Take note of the emphasised portion!

2000 B.C.
Bananas have apparently originated in Malaysia

600 B.C.
Bananas are cited in Buddhist texts

327 B.C.
Alexander the Great's army recorded for the first time in history the existence of banana crops in the indian valleys. Alexander is also credited for bringing the banana from India to the western nations.

63 B.C.
Antonius Musa - the personal doctor of the then Roman emperor Octavius Augustus - was credited for promoting cultivation of the exotic African fruit from 63 to 14 B.C.

200 A.D.
Organized banana plantations have been recorded in China

650 A.D.
Islamic conquerors helped bananas make their way to Madagascar, and then spread to the African mainland by vegetative propagation. Here in Africa many genetic mutations occurred, that produced different species of bananas. Portuguese traders then spread the fruit from Africa to the Canary Islands

1502 A.D.
The Portuguese and the Spanish are credited for bringing bananas to the Carribean and to America. According to Spanish history, Friar Tomas de Berlanga brought the first banana root stocks to the Western Hemisphere. A Chinese variety was sent to England, where it was named "Cavendish" after the Duke of Devonshire's family. This variety and its sub-groups account for much of the commercial banana cultivation. Even though several other varieties are now cultivated for commercial purpose, they only account for about 20 of 300 different species.

17th century
Its Guinean native name - "banema" - which became "banana" in English, was first found in print

1836 A.D.
The yellow sweet banana is a mutant strain of the green and red cooking bananas, discovered in 1836 by Jamaican Jean Francois Poujot. He found that in his plantations, one plant was bearing yellow fruits rather than red or green. Upon tasting the new discovery, he found it to be sweet in its raw state, without the need for cooking. He quickly began cultivating this sweet variety.

1876 A.D.
Bananas are introduced to American families as an exotic dessert. From here it will grow and become a staple fruit. They were officially introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents.

1900 A.D.
Bananas are now considered a commodity and are traded by large companies. The United Fruit Company is credited for being of the first to commercialize bananas

Thanks to new transport technologies such as refrigeration, bananas have become widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, bananas grow in most tropical and subtropical regions with the main commercial producers including Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Ecuador.

*information courtesy of some website on bananas on the web*

Well, i guess my whole theory on the 'man watch monkey' thingy wasn't quite what i thought.
Who would have thought that it all boiled down to the plain curiosity and boldness of a farmer who was quick enough to notice and do something about the 'alien' in his plantation ;)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi ! It's Bob here in Miami, Florida . I grow them , eat them and give them away. It's a funtastic fruit. Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens has an event each year , Nov.8 and 9 th, called " The Ramble ", where many varieties are displayed , including the " praying-hands banana " , " apple banana " and large" Plantins ".

Dr V said...

"praying hands banana"? Now that definitely sounds interesting. Wonder whether it tastes as good ;)