Advocates of natural medicine promote banana peels to treat a variety of ailments, including dry skin, bug bites, and even warts.

The best-known variety of banana is the Cavendish, named after Englishman William Spencer Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire. It is believed that the original Cavendish plants were brought from southern China in about 1826 and taken to Mauritius. From there some plants were taken to England and, several years later, derivatives from these plants were obtained by the Duke's gardener, Joseph Paxton, in 1829.

During the 1950s, an outbreak of Panama disease almost wiped out the commercial production of Gros Michel bananas, the dominant cultivar. The outbreak inflicted enormous costs on the industry and forced producers to switch to other, disease-resistant cultivars.

Most historians believe that the Arabian slave traders gave the banana its popular name. The bananas that originated from Southeast Asia were not the size we're familiar with today. They were small, about as long as an adult finger, hence the name "banan", which is Arabic for finger.

The Blue Java is a hardy, cold-tolerant banana cultivar known for its sweet aromatic fruit, which is said to have an ice cream-like consistency and flavor reminiscent of vanilla.

In India, flowers from the banana plant are considered sacred. During religious ceremonies, such as weddings, banana flowers are fastened to a headband for good luck.