Musa x Paradisiaca is a tropical tree-like herb that is native to Southeast Asia and India and cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. Musa Paradisiaca grows up to 30 feet high and produces large leaves and green or greenish-yellow seedless fruits Musa ž Paradisiaca is a hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Carl Linnaeus (Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist) originally used the name M. Paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes numerous edible cultivars that have been derived from crosses with this wild seeded variety that are used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is thus a synonym of Musa ž Paradisiaca. The unripe fruit of banana, rich in starch, is cooked as food or dried and ground into flour. The fruit of the plantain (cooking banana) is larger, coarser and less sweet than the kinds that are eaten raw. On ripening of the fruit, the starch turns into sugar. The fruits are sources of energy. It contains potassium, proteins, fibers, carbohydrates and an association of vitamins: A, B, B6, C and E; it is also rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and folic acid. Hardiness zone: 9 to 11