Bananas have been around a long time; at least in the Old World of Asia; Africa and Europe. Quite where they originated remains uncertain. Some authorities favour West Africa; since the name 'banana' is believed to have come from Guinea; via Spanish and Portuguese. In all probability; though; bananas - and their equally useful green cousins; plantains - originated in Asia; possibly in the Middle East.

Certainly bananas are noted with approval in early Greek; Latin and Arab literature; and the name plantain is believed to derive from the Latin planta; 'a spreading sucker or shoot'. Alexander the Great saw - and no doubt tasted - bananas on his expedition to India in the third century BCE; and they are mentioned in Chinese lists of Tang Dynasty exotica as pleasant fruits of nan-yang; or Southeast Asia; more than thirteen hundred years ago. Pictures From Asia David Henley