Musa

The true stem (rhizome) is underground. The terminal growing point of the rhizome, the meristem, is a flattened dome from which the leaves, and eventually the inflorescence, are formed. The part of the plant that looks like a trunk is a false stem, called pseudostem, formed by the tightly packed overlapping leaf sheaths. The sturdy pseudostem continues to grow in height as the leaves emerge one after the other and reaches its maximum height when the inflorescence emerges at the top of the plant. Suckers (lateral shoots) develop from the rhizome and usually emerge close to the mother plant. The leaf emerges from the center of the pseudostem as a rolled cylinder. The leaf has a 30-90 cm long petiole and up to 3 m long and 60 cm wide oblong lamina. The inflorescence is a complex spike. The peduncle grows through the pseudostem until it emerges at the top of the plant. Flowers are arranged in nodal clusters, each subtended by a soon falling reddish, purple or violet bract. The first 5-15 basal nodes produce female flower clusters. Asthe female flowers develop into fruit, the distal portion of the inflorescence elongates and produces clusters of male flowers (absent in some cultivars). The male flowers produce pollen that may or may not be sterile. Hermaphrodite flowers may be present on the rachis between the female and male flowers. In cultivated bananas, the ovary develops into a seedless fruit by parthenocarpy, i.e., without pollination.