Buy a banana and it will almost certainly be descended from one plant grown at an English stately home. But now we face losing one of the world’s most-loved fruits.
Sitting in picture-perfect Peak District grounds, Chatsworth House seems an unlikely birthplace for today’s global banana industry.
But practically every banana consumed in the western world is directly descended from a plant grown in the Derbyshire estate’s hothouse 180 years ago.
This is the story of how the Cavendish became the world’s most important fruit – and why it and bananas as we know them could soon cease to exist.
The birth of the Cavendish banana
Bananas have been grown at Chatsworth since 1830 when head gardener Joseph Paxton got his hands on a specimen imported from Mauritius.
He had apparently been inspired after seeing a banana plant depicted on Chinese wallpaper in one of the home’s 175 rooms, but today’s head gardener Steve Porter is sceptical about the story.
“Certainly the timings fit”, he said, “but I think it’s much more likely that Paxton was always on the lookout for new and exotic plants and was well connected enough to know when the banana plants arrived in England.”
Paxton filled a pit with “plenty of water, rich loam soil and well-rotted dung” with the temperature maintained between 18C and 30C (65F and 85F) to grow the fruit he called Musa Cavendishii after his employers (Cavendish being the family name of the Dukes and Duchesses of Devonshire).
“At that time for a family in England to be able to grow their own bananas to feed their guests was very exciting,” said Mr Porter, adding: “It still is for us today.”
In November 1835 Paxton’s plant finally flowered and by the following May it was loaded with more than 100 bananas, one of which won a medal at that year’s Horticultural Society show.
A few years later the duke supplied two cases of plants to a missionary named John Williams to take to Samoa.
Only one survived the journey but it launched the banana industry in Samoa and other South Sea islands (Williams himself was killed by natives).
Missionaries also took the Cavendish banana to the Pacific and the Canary Islands.
So the Cavendish spread, but it is only in relatively recent years that it has become the exporter’s banana of choice, its rise in popularity caused by the very thing that is now killing it off – the Panama disease.
Bananas on the brink
Read more: The imminent death of the Cavendish banana and why it affects us all
The Latest on: Panama disease
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The Latest on: Panama disease
- MinDA backs sorghum to counter Panama diseaseon October 27, 2019 at 5:04 pm
DAVAO CITY – The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has proposed the planting of sorghum in banana farms that have been affected by Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease, to provide an ...
- First report of Panama disease in Cavendish bananas caused by Tropical Race 4 in Colombiaon October 18, 2019 at 4:40 am
cubense) in Cavendish banana plants in Colombia. TR4 is the cause of Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease in many banana varieties. The findings are published in an open-source article in the ...
- Growers combat Panama diseaseon October 7, 2019 at 3:43 pm
U.S. banana importers seemed concerned but not panicked after it was reported that Fusarisum wilt tropical race 4 — commonly referred to as TR4 or Panama disease — was detected in Colombia in August.
- Philippines: Panama disease-hit areas may doubleon September 18, 2019 at 5:23 am
An official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Davao Region said areas affected by the Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease, may double by this year. Virgelio Gutierrez, a science ...
- Colombian Panama disease could have far-reaching consequences, warns botaniston September 10, 2019 at 10:00 pm
A RECENT outbreak of Panama disease in Colombia has a leading banana researcher urging Far Northern growers to remain vigilant against the potential threat. Two weeks ago it was confirmed that banana ...
- Deadly fungus killing bananas: What is Panama disease Tropical Race 4?on August 17, 2019 at 9:53 pm
The Colombian government has confirmed that a deadly fungus threatening banana plantations in the Eastern Hemisphere has officially arrived in the Americas, prompting a declaration of a national state ...
- Deadly fungus killing bananas: What is Panama disease Tropical Race 4?on August 17, 2019 at 8:44 pm
Officials with ICA, the Colombian agriculture and livestock authority, reported lab tests identified the presence of Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (or TR4), a form of Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium ...
- Hi-tech banana laboratory leads fight against deadly fungus Panama Diseaseon August 16, 2019 at 9:16 am
Earlier this week, Colombia confirmed that its bananas were infected with a killer fungus. After ravaging plantations across Asia, Panama Disease has officially made landfall in the New World. We know ...
- Banana companies safeguard supply against Panama diseaseon March 22, 2019 at 11:59 am
The TR4 strain of the Panama disease fungus, or fusarium wilt, is a menace to the widely grown cavendish banana variety. So far the TR4 (tropical race 4) has been found in southeast Asia, Australia ...
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