Cavendish banana

The Cavendish banana is a widely cultivated variety of dessert banana, known for its sweetness and availability. It is the most common type of banana imported by non-tropical countries. The banana plant itself is a large herb, with hundreds of varieties, broadly categorized into dessert bananas and plantains.12

While dessert bananas like the Cavendish are typically eaten fresh, plantains are starchier and usually cooked. Banana plants are vulnerable to diseases due to their limited genetic diversity, as most varieties are propagated clonally. The Cavendish variety was largely adopted after the Gros Michel banana was devastated by Panama disease, a fungal infection. However, the Cavendish itself is now threatened by a strain of Panama disease known as Tropical Race (TR) 4.123