Bananas

Banana cultivation in Hermigua

It seems that the first banana trees were brought to the Canary Islands from Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 15th century, and by 1526 the plant had already acclimatized and settled on the islands, as sailors loaded green bananas onto their ships to feed themselves on their voyages to America.
Shortly after their appearance, bananas spread rapidly throughout the islands and were highly appreciated by the inhabitants. They also became known to English travellers, who bought them on their stopovers on their way back to the United Kingdom. This led to the English encouraging their cultivation in the 1880s, exporting the fruit to the British Isles. The importance of trade between England and the Canary Islands was such that London even had an area called Canary Wharf on the banks of the Thames. 

The Hermigua crane, promoted by the company "La Unión" and the English exporter "Fyffes", is a monument to the golden age of trade with the British. What is now an imposing industrial vestige was once a modern work of port engineering that was the main economic and social engine of Hermigua.

Parts of the banana tree

The banana tree is a herbaceous, perennial and large plant, with the following characteristics:
Roots: It has a fasciculated root system, very developed, both vertically and horizontally, as well as in number; more than 300 roots, in optimal banana trees, with a total length that approaches the same number of meters. They explore a large volume of soil, from which it is understood that an adequate work of deepening is ideal for this crop.

Neck: An area of ​​great importance because it is where adventitious buds originate, from whose shoots the stems that preserve the plant indefinitely emerge.
Stem: It is made up of a true herbaceous stem, which is surrounded by leaf sheaths that overlap one another as it grows, as if they were tiles or scales. In this way, the "roll" becomes considerably larger in diameter, which, together with the large development of the leaves, gives the plant the appearance of a tree.

Leaves:
They are petiolate and large in size, with the leaf area estimated to be four times larger than the surface area occupied by the plant. They are oval in shape, with an entire edge, and the blade has pennate veins.
Inflorescence: Each plant produces, at the end of the stem, a single inflorescence which, when it appears, is protected by large green and purple bracts mixed together; in this state it is known as an "acorn". As it develops, the floral leaves come off, leaving the fruits visible; so it is called a bunch or "pineapple". The flowers are grouped in double rows, called "hands", arranged at about 120 degrees and at different levels around the axis of the bunch.
Fruits: They are harvested before maturity, with a green colour on the outside and yellow flesh, so that they ripen during transport and reach consumer markets in good condition. They are berry fruits in which the seeds are aborted.
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