I came across a claim about a month ago that a banana plant is a bush and not a tree. Would some botanist please point me to a definitive source and explanation?
The application of this question is whether I can serve bananas at Passover immediately after Karpas, where we start the pre-meal with a food grown in / on the ground.
Vegtable on both counts.
Scientifically, it’s a bush and not a tree. Something to do with annuals versus perennials, I think.
Religiously, the bracha is h’adama.
Incorrect on all counts. Technically it is a large herb. Bushes and trees are categories of woody plants. Bananas don’t have woody tissue.
Loosely it might be considered a tree. The distinction between bushes and trees is usually that a tree has a single main trunk; bushes and shrubs branch near the ground and have no single main trunk. (There may be exceptions such as strangler figs or banyans.) Although bananas may have several trunks emerging from the same rootstock, the trunks are single, not branched.
Bushes and trees are all perennials. “Annual” refers to a plant that germinates, reproduces, and dies within one year.
Okay, so it’s not bush. But it isn’t a tree, either.
And it definately is h’adama.
All the bananas I’ve see growing are well off the ground. Is that relevant?
Or notice that the banana plant is a monocot, get a little bit sloppy with its family affiliation, and call it a large perennial grass.
The relevant point is that the blessings are ha-adamah, “the ground,” and ha-etz, “the tree.” And the opinions are all that a banana plant is NOT a tree.
I don’t know what this means.
You should consult your rabbi, on whether or not you can eat it during Passover, but the banana is an herbaceous plant not a woody one, so not a tree or a bush. They are commonly called banana trees because the stalk of the plant closely resembles a trunk in size.
If you’re interested in the question, I strongly sggest checking out what a banana plant looks like. When I was living at the Biosphere one was in bloom, and it was unexpectedly surreal – and this in a surreal environment.
Whether it’s a tree, bush, or herb, a banana does not count as hametz – fermented grain – nor kitniyot – legumes.
It’s clear that these are not divisions recognized by botanists, so what a banana is according to botanical definitions would hardly seem to be relevant.
What is the basis for the opinions that the banana is not a tree? On what definition are they based?
A banana, in an informal sense, can be considered a tree, since it is a large plant with a single trunk.
What is certain is that bananas are not grown in or on the ground, but well above it.
The blessing before eating a banana would be "He who created the fruit of the ground).
Ditto what everyone else said.
I would add - in direct response to the OP - that in order to educate the community about the fact that in Jewish law bananas are vegetables of the ground, rather than fruits of a tree, the custom of the rabbis of Elizabeth NJ (beginning with the famed Rabbi Pinchas Teitz and now his son Rabbi Elazar Teitz) that they deliberately and specifically use bananas for the ritual of Karpas at the Passover seder.