Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Musa × paradisiaca; photograph (c) Graham Cleaver, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Graham Cleaver, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-10

Musa × paradisiaca L.

French plantain; Banana; Plantain; Plantain banana

Musaceae · Malaya, Philippines · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

A hybrid: M. acuminata × M. balbisiana, the parents Kew's World Checklist states for it (WCVP, RBG Kew).

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Musa × paradisiaca, photograph (c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY) 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.7°C
Record low 18.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr, May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,337mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Musa × paradisiaca is a species as well as a cultivar, originating as the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, cultivated and domesticated by humans very early. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are polyploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. Linnaeus originally used the name M. paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is thus a synonym of Musa × paradisiaca.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Musa × paradisiaca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,798 mm of 2,362 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,362 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,798 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 280 mm, driest month February at 115 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,033 mm to 3,103 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,337 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,362 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.7 °C, the absolute minimum 18.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 20.5 °C to 23.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.4 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -216 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Musa × paradisiaca through the yearWarmest months April, May and June, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.2 °C; 2,362 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°33.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER18.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–37RH 64–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–3028 / 24–3129 / 25–3130 / 26–3230 / 27–3130 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3028 / 26–2927 / 25–29
Night °C22 / 21–2423 / 21–2423 / 21–2424 / 22–2524 / 22–2624 / 22–2624 / 22–2524 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–24
Rain mm151 / 28–214115 / 25–194145 / 34–264153 / 43–312200 / 130–279206 / 137–279211 / 145–407195 / 161–434236 / 190–371280 / 201–355259 / 149–346211 / 104–312
DLI29 / 27–3434 / 32–3837 / 35–4037 / 35–4235 / 32–3934 / 31–3633 / 29–3534 / 30–3534 / 30–3531 / 29–3428 / 26–3128 / 24–30
RH %65 / 63–7164 / 62–7065 / 62–7166 / 62–7266 / 63–7165 / 63–7166 / 62–7267 / 62–7267 / 63–7368 / 64–7568 / 65–7467 / 64–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 21 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1739:5631 (3.025, 101.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 19 distinct grid cells holding 21 of the 21 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1739:5631 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.00_101.875, lapse-corrected -216 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMalaya, Philippines · introduced: Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Central African Republic, Gulf of Guinea Is., Chad, Kenya, Tanzania, Ascension, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., New Guinea, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Hawaii, Alabama, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Ecuador · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker14.677, 121.16 · in the densest population, 29 records (62% of those in range)
Kew's description“herbaceous tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 47 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 21 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 12 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 42 km away. 1338 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 26 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 47 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Musa × paradisiaca, photograph 1did not loadMusa × paradisiaca, photograph 2did not loadMusa × paradisiaca, photograph 3did not loadMusa × paradisiaca, photograph 4did not loadMusa × paradisiaca, photograph 5did not loadMusa × paradisiaca, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Nicollas Michels, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); (c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eurycoma longifolia Eurycoma longifolia Simaroubaceae Photo: CC BY, Steven BodzinNephelium lappaceum Nephelium lappaceum Rambutan Photo: CC0, author not statedPlatycerium coronarium Platycerium coronarium Elkhorn fern Photo: CC BY, Michael BerardozziDendrobium anosmum Dendrobium anosmum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Vreni Gem O. CaasiGarcinia atroviridis Garcinia atroviridis Clusiaceae Photo: CC BY, Ooi Qie Kopsia pauciflora Apocynaceae

Other Musa 29 in the reference

Musa acuminata Musa acuminata Edible banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh SengMusa balbisiana Musa balbisiana Plantain Photo: CC BY, Mark WagnerMusa banksii Musa banksii Maroon-stemmed Banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldMusa basjoo Musa basjoo Japanese banana Photo: CC BY, rhizMusa beccarii Musa beccarii Pisang Tajak Photo: CC BY, Brodie Cass TalbottMusa borneensis Musa borneensis Angkadan banana Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Musa bukensis Musaceae Musa campestris Musa campestris Swamp Banana Photo: CC BY, Kai SquiresMusa cheesmanii Musa cheesmanii Cheesman's Banana Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGMusa coccinea Musa coccinea Scarlet banana Photo: CC BY, Luis G RestrepoMusa gracilis Musa gracilis Johore Banana Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei GanMusa haekkinenii Musa haekkinenii Musaceae Photo: CC BY, SnowFire all 30 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Musa balbisiana var. vittata; Musa ornata var. normalis; Musa paradisiaca subsp. sapientum; Musa paradisiaca var. regia; Musa paradisiaca var. sapientum. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Musa acuminata x M. balbisiana is an older name of this species, not Musa acuminata, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Musaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Malaya, Philippines
Wild records
47 in range · 12 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 50 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (38 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 12 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.00_101.875, lapse-corrected -216 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 156 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…