# The shrinking banana peel **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253 "2001-12-01T03:36:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Finnie\_the\_Pooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@Finnie\_the\_Pooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finnie_the_Pooh)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/1 "2001-12-01T03:36:24Z")
This has bothered me for several kalpas now: why does a banana peel get thinner as the banana ripens? I suspect it has something to do with moisture loss, but how does that tie in with the ripening part? Enlighten me, o millions! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/2 "2001-12-01T22:44:53Z")
I hope you mean the small kalpas. I suppose the process is different depending on whether the bananas are on the tree, or in [some sort of artificial banana ripener](http://catalyticgenerators.com/banripcolcha.html). I wonder what the wild ancestors of the modern bananas looked like. They couldn’t have evolved naturally with 20 kg bunches of fruit, could they ? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/3 "2001-12-01T23:00:39Z")
I’ve noticed this, but I don’t think the fruit is getting smaller overall; I think all that is happening is that when you peel the fruit in the unripe green-yellow state, you’re unwittingly removing with the skin, a thin layer of what would be fruit if you wait until the speckled golden-yellow state (which is, of course the proper way to enjoy the full flavour). An experiment is needed here; take two bananas of similar weight from the same bunch, weigh them both, then peel one of them and weigh the peeled fruit, wait a week or so until the other one is ripe, weigh it (has it lost weight?) then peel and weigh the peeled fruit (is it heavier than the unripe peeled fruit?). One day I’ll get around to doing this. ---
**Author:** ![Finnie\_the\_Pooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@Finnie\_the\_Pooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finnie_the_Pooh)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/4 "2001-12-02T01:31:26Z")
When you let a banana sit in your fruitbowl well past the delectable stage, it turns black,but it does not dry out. It seems to me that a banana is composed of mostly liquid substances. A banana has no seeds, so can it still be classified a fruit? What about seedless grapes? Isn’t the banana plant a grass? This is more mystical than I thought, but then I’m only a carpenter, like Jesus was. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/5 "2001-12-02T08:10:22Z")
It would be a piece of cake to get a ripe banana and an unripe banana and measure the volatile (which would be almost all water) content of the peels. Until July I could have done it easily in the lab where I worked, but I don’t have access to a good enough balance anymore. ---
**Author:** ![royjwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@royjwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royjwood)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/6 "2001-12-02T08:36:16Z")
Originally posted by: Mangetout > [@](#): > > I think all that is happening is that when you peel the fruit in the unripe green-yellow state, you’re unwittingly removing with the skin, a thin layer of what would be fruit if you wait until the speckled golden-yellow state (which is, of course the proper way to enjoy the full flavour). Where I live, we also have a large, partially rounded off triangular shaped (not pyramid), reddish banana. It is actually much better tasting than the normal yellow variety, but owing to it’s strange looks, are not nearly as popular, at least not until some one is brave enough to eat it. Note: this is not the plaintains that some people like to fry. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/7 "2001-12-02T22:49:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by royjwood \* > \*\*Where I live, we also have a large, partially rounded off triangular shaped (not pyramid), reddish banana. It is actually much better tasting than the normal yellow variety, but owing to it’s strange looks, are not nearly as popular, at least not until some one is brave enough to eat it. > Note: this is not the plaintains that some people like to fry. \*\* These are available in supermarkets here in the UK; I have tried them (being Mangetout by nature as well as name, how could I resist?) - they are softer and ‘creamier’, but expensive. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/8 "2001-12-02T22:56:40Z")
Bananas do have seeds…those little black specks in the middle are the seeds. I think. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/9 "2001-12-02T22:56:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lauri Sadko \* > \*\*A banana has no seeds, so can it still be classified a fruit? What about seedless grapes? Isn’t the banana plant a grass? This is more mystical than I thought, but then I’m only a carpenter, like Jesus was. \*\* A banana is a fruit(technically, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly a berry), even though commercial varieties usually contain no viable seeds. The banana plant is a herb (it’s not a tree and it doesn’t produce any woody tissue). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/10 "2001-12-02T23:36:49Z")
I’ve heard that the food-bearing banana plants are triploid hybrids (i.e., having three sets of chromosones rather than the normal diploid two, or the occasional quadruploid seen in plants), and that that’s the reason why they don’t produce any seeds of significant size. This probably has something to do with the bunch size, too. And just what is the proper definition of a berry, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/11 "2001-12-02T23:40:48Z")
A berry is a fleshy capsule enclosing multiple seeds. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/12 "2001-12-02T23:43:03Z")
(and I think this definition still holds true in cases such as the seedless grape, watermelon or banana) ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/13 "2001-12-03T00:01:00Z")
A watermelon is a seedless grape?? Then what the hell are those black things I used to spit at my sister? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/14 "2001-12-03T00:06:32Z")
There are such things as [seedless watermelons](http://www.tropical-seeds.com/swatermelon.html) - I’ve never tried one, neither have I tried the yellow-fleshed types also depicted on the page that I linked here. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/15 "2001-12-03T00:14:05Z")
Well, there are blue roses, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/16 "2001-12-03T00:33:30Z")
What I meant, anyway, is that a watermelon (seedless or not)is a berry. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/17 "2001-12-03T00:40:23Z")
Bananas and Plantains (essentially a starchier banana), both originated from wild hybrids of Musa acuminata, and Musa balbisiana. They are indeed triploid. Musa balbisiana are very seedy (and inedible), seeds taking up much of the fruit: [http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~imaguire/balbissian.jpg](http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~imaguire/balbissian.jpg) I’d bet fruit size was a selected trait through continual hybridization (such as the small fruits of the “senorita” bananas are). The small specs you see in eating bananas are undeveloped ovules. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shrinking-banana-peel/96253/18 "2001-12-03T05:29:54Z")
Here’s how the genome breakdown of plantains, and bananas work. Both types are hybrids between Musa acuminata, and M. balbisiana. M. acuminata provided genome a, and M. balbisiana provided genome b. soo… AAA - dessert, highland beer (in Africa) and cooking bananas AAB - Plantains and dessert bananas ABB - cooking bananas. From what I can gather, you wouldnt have BBB chosen for cultivation for eating, because apparently BBB = a triploid M. balbisiana (maybe these have seeds, i’m not sure, sites are very vague). From what i can gather, M. acuminata are edible (well…i keep finding M. acuminata “Cavendish”, “sumatrana”, things like that). [http://www.iita.org/info/trn\_mat/irg66/irg661.html](http://www.iita.org/info/trn_mat/irg66/irg661.html)