The banana we eat is actually a fruit. The black piece that sometimes remains on the end of the banana is the dead flower. Along the centre of the banana can sometimes be seen very small black dots. These are the reminants of seeds. The commercial varieties of bananas in Australia are sterile, therefore the fruit do not contain viable seeds.
The banana plant itself however is herbaceous. The trunk (or psuedostem) is not woody at all but represents the tightly wound petioles of the banana leaves. As a monocot, bananas fall into the family of grasses along with corn, wheat and rice.
A technical definition of the banana plant? A giant herbaceous monocotyledonous perennial with a horizontal underground rhizome of the Genus Musa.
Although bananas can be grown virtually anywhere there are sheltered conditions and water, commercial plantations tend to stay in the warmer, higher rainfall (or irrigated areas) of the country.
On the east coast of Australia bananas are grown commercially as far south as Nambucca and Yarrahapinni, south of Coffs Harbour through to the Daintree in far north Queensland.
In Western Australia the main growing areas are Carnarvon and Kununurra. There are a small number of plantations in the Northern Territory around Humpty Doo.
Why are developing bananas covered with a plastic bag?
Commercially grown bananas are covered with a plastic bag soon after the bunch emerges from the plant to create a warmer micro-climate around the fruit, shortening the time to maturity and helping keep the bunch clean.
The colour of a bunch cover has a significant impact upon the rate at which the fruit develops with some of the most popular colours being blue and green (light and dark). Silver covers help prevent fruit burn during the summer. Other colours used include red, pink, yellow and white.
Bananas start life very, very straight but as the bunch emerges from the top of the plant and the bracts roll back (bracts are the leathery purple things that separate the hands of bananas) and fall off, the bananas begin to spread out and turn upward.
They do this because bananas are negatively geo-tropic. This means that they grow away from the pull of gravity, as opposed to turning upward toward the sun.
Because the Cavendish bunch is quite large and hangs almost straight down, the bananas generally have an even bend in them all the way round the bunch.
However Ladyfinger bunches sit almost at right angles to the plant and the bananas on the top side of the bunch grow straight upward while the bananas on the bottom side twist right around. Though there is no difference in the fruit the twisted bananas from the bottom side of the bunch generally don't make it to market, which is one reason that Ladyfinger bananas are more expensive because not all the bunch can be marketed.
Sometimes bananas without any bruising or damage evident on the skin develop a black centre that can be very unappealing (no pun intended) when bitten into.
While there are several possible causes for black centres in bananas, the most likely is that the fruit has suffered an impact or a sustained pressure to the tip of the flower end. This can happen to bananas if cartons have begun to collapse or have been dropped when the fruit is just beginning to ripen.
The three segments of the banana separate and there begins normal physiological breakdown.
If you see this problem, please use our Consumer Feedback form to contact us so we can contact the people involved and bring the problem to their attention, so that we all get better bananas!
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Bananas start life very, very straight but as the bunch emerges from the top of the plant and the bracts roll back (bracts are the leathery purple things that separate the hands of bananas) and fall off, the bananas begin to spread out and turn upward. 
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