Banana

Banana plants include several species in the genus Musa known for their long, starchy fruits. Originally from India, Southeast Asia, and Sahul, humans spread them across the world centuries ago. The especially sweet, yellow variety known as the Cavendish spread furthest, becoming a major staple across the world in the final centuries of civilization, but nearly all of these trees had the exact same genetic code and required intensive human intervention to propagate. With the collapse of civilization and the intensive techniques used on ancient banana plantations, the familiar Cavendish banana has all but gone extinct. Instead, bananas in the Fifth World come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, from red, pink, purple or black, to soft dessert bananas like the ancient Cavendish to the firmer cooking bananas (sometimes called “plantains”), and an even wider selection of wild varieties.

#Human relationship

People of the Fifth World enjoy dessert bananas raw, as one would any raw fruit. They also use the trees for fiber and the leaves to eat on or to wrap meat in. They sometimes ferment the fruits to make banana wine or (if adding a grain for yeast) banana beer.

#Banana People

To truly focus on their relationship with bananas, a community must commit itself to gardening and the village life that entails. Bananas can shape a community in a number of unique ways, though. Some examples include:

#Species

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