Banana trees are made up of giant leaves, not a trunk. So they’re more like a giant onion instead of a tree.

  • originalucifer
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    567 days ago

    They are fast-growing plants, with a growth rate of up to 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) per day.[5]

    holy shit

    • @acockworkorange@mander.xyz
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      6 days ago

      Fun fact: banana tree trunks grow horizontally underground. The above ground part is a leaf bunch that produces exactly one bunch in their lifetime. Which is why farmers cut it down after harvesting, to stimulate the tree to produce new shoots and more nanners.

      • @ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        66 days ago

        Well, they do feel warm to the touch, but bananas only grow in warm and humid climates, so everything feels that way.

    • @tyler@programming.dev
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      137 days ago

      So I’ve searched and searched and my wife and I watched a lot of YouTube timelapses and we couldn’t find one that grew that fast. Not saying it isn’t the max, but it’s probably very abnormal

      • @LordTrychon@startrek.website
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        56 days ago

        Anecdotal, but I’ve seen banana plants push out leaves vertically nearly that fast at their peak growth. Each leaf can be close to 6ft long, maybe longer. They shoot straight up out of the top of the plant when they come out, so they do temporarily add that much height.

        When the leave gets completely pushed out, it unfolds and leans to the side and in the end only adds a foot or less to the full height.

        Not sure if that counts, but they are fun plants to have. I’m in Midwest America… so you don’t have to be in a tropical area to grow them, but we do have to cut it down every year and cover it in mulch and leaves to protect it.

        Our biggest gets to 16-18ft tall every year. One of it’s children we’ve given away is a bit bigger.

  • @ScoobyDope@lemm.ee
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    417 days ago

    I’ve gone down the rabbit hole. Depending on culinary, scientific, or horticulture, nobody agrees on what things are classified as.

    • @sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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      -167 days ago

      Exactly? Sorry, nerds ruined this one.

      You know what a fruit and a vegetable are. It has nothing to do where the seeds are. Botanists don’t get to change the English language.

      Like everything else in English, you’ll figure it out from context.

      • @BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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        287 days ago

        Vegetables don’t exist botanically and fruit has a very different meaning in a botanical context when compared to the culinary definition

      • @protist@mander.xyz
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        47 days ago

        We’re not talking about whether something is a fruit or a vegetable lmao

        This is about what kind of fruit something is, e.g. a berry vs a drupe

  • @CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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    96 days ago

    No such thing as a tree really (genetically speaking), trees are just a bunch of plants that converged on a similar niche but they don’t all share a common ancestor (some trees are more closely related to brocoli than other trees), lots of different things evolved into what we now call trees seperately from eachother so a bannana tree is as much a tree as any other tree.

    • @angrystego@lemmy.world
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      126 days ago

      That doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as trees though. It means a tree is a growth form, a life strategy, just like a succulent, a geofyte or an epifyte. It’s a group of plants that have a lot in common despite not being related, and they are well defined. And one of the important defining characteristics of a tree is true wood production, which is missing in bananas. The life form of a banana is much more similar to ginger than to any tree.

    • @Shou@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      The same goes for everything that lives then. There is no such thing as a mammal, they are just a form of prototheria! A lot of them just evolved into what we consider marsupials or eutheria. But a koala is just as much a mammal as a lemur!

      Now this is a much smaller branch ofc, but you could slap it onto anything more vague. Reptiles, fish, crabs… and worse… fungi. Not to mention the archea.

  • @Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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    35 days ago

    I just don’t respect botanical definitions any more. Who cares what they think berries, fruits, grain and nuts should be? They can’t even define a tree! If anyone gets to define these terms for every English speaker, it sure isn’t going to be them.

    Culinary definitions all the way! Unfortunately, they have no satisfying category for rhubarb either.

    • @eRac@lemmings.world
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      15 days ago

      Bananas grow from seeds inside the fruit. Since we bred the seeds out, now it’s a clone-only plant.

  • @BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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    -27 days ago

    No, they are nasty mush wax that should only be used for smells. Ugh, I hate touching them so much. The last time I bit one, I couldn’t even chew it. Had to spit it right in the trash.