Red banana (Musa acuminata AAA Group 'Red Dacca')

Pisang genderuwo or red banana (Musa acuminata AAA Group 'Red Dacca') is a cultivar in Musaceae, bananas with reddish-purple skin, some smaller and plumper or larger than the common cavendish, flesh having a cream to pink color, soft and sweet.

M. acuminata (AAA Group) 'Red Dacca' is a small, seedless or seedless, evergreen perennial that arises from a completely buried tuber. Stems form as pseudostems with heaps of leaf sheaths and are succulent, tender, erect, up to 3 meters high, green to black in color and produce shoots around them.

The leaf blade is elongated, 120 cm long, 45 cm wide, impermeable, a sheath in the middle and reddish or bluish or black in color and has a powdery coating.

Inflorescences grow horizontally or obliquely from the end of the stem. The female flowers are near the base and develop into fruit, the male flowers are on the uppermost bud and form buds between the leathery bracts. The fruits grow in a bunch. Each fruit is up to 23 cm long, up to 4 cm in diameter and weighs up to 200 grams.

Red bananas have softer and sweeter flesh than other cavendish cultivars. The skin is thicker, but has a longer shelf life than other cultivars. Prices tend to be more expensive because supply is much less. This cultivar contains more beta carotene and vitamin C than yellow bananas. Also contains potassium and iron. The redder the fruit, the more carotene and the higher the vitamin C.

Red bananas are often eaten raw, whole or chopped, and added to desserts and fruit salads. This fruit can also be boiled, fried and baked. All bananas contain natural sources of three sugars namely sucrose, fructose and glucose.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Musaceae
Genus: Musa
Species: Musa acuminata
Cultivar: Musa acuminata (AAA Group) 'Red Dacca'

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