Plantain

Musa x paradisiaca

Appears in

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini

By Elizabeth Schneider

Published 2001

About

Also cooking banana; platano and platano macho (Latin American)

People in the Northern Hemisphere are likely to look at this photo and think, “Sweet fruit.” But people in the Southern Hemisphere would be more likely to think of plantain as a staple starch. Plantain is cooked, much like potatoes, wherever it grows.

Questions about use are easily answered. Not so the questions raised (and not answered here) by a botanical description: Plantain is classified as Musa x paradisiaca (as are most bananas), a perennial herb, the fruit of which is a berry. The berry is called both banana and plantain (and by similar names) in many parts of the world, but depending upon the locale, the meanings may be reversed.