Q 01/05

Botanically speaking, a banana is which type of fruit?

A) A drupe

B) A pome

C) A berry

D) A legume

Answer · why

C) A berry

A berry: botanically the banana sits with grapes and tomatoes, while strawberries and raspberries, berries only in the kitchen, do not qualify.

Q 02/05

Although it looks like a tree, the banana plant is ranked by botanists as the world's largest what?

A) Herb

B) Shrub

C) Palm

D) Fern

Answer · why

A) Herb

Herb: what looks like a trunk is really a false stem built from the tightly wrapped bases of its leaves.

Q 03/05

Bananas belong to which plant genus?

A) Ficus

B) Carica

C) Persea

D) Musa

Answer · why

D) Musa

The genus sits in the order Zingiberales alongside ginger, and around 85 species were recognised as of 2025.

Q 04/05

Nearly every edible banana descends from two wild species: M. acuminata and which other?

A) M. textilis

B) M. balbisiana

C) M. coccinea

D) M. velutina

Answer · why

B) M. balbisiana

Both species were first described by Luigi Aloysius Colla, and their hybrid carries the name Musa x paradisiaca.

Q 05/05

Why is the Cavendish banana so hard to breed?

A) It rarely flowers

B) It is seedless

C) It needs bat pollinators

D) It needs volcanic soil

Answer · why

B) It is seedless

It is seedless: the Cavendish carries three sets of chromosomes, so growers multiply it as identical clones instead of crossing plants.