Musa acuminata (hybrid) -- Mai'a
Musa acuminata (hybrid) -- Mai'a
Bananas are one of the world's largest herbaceous perennial plants, some being 25 to 30 feet high. It is not a woody tree, and its trunk is constructed of layers of spirally arranged, overlapping leaf bases. These grow from a great bulbous underground stem, called a corm.
When the stalk is ten months old, it produces a large, downward-turning bud. One or two clusters of the bud open at a time, each protected by close fitting leaf-like bracts, often reddish to purplish. The sterile, female flowers emerge from the bracts in clusters and start to form the banana fruit. At the end of the long stalk, enclosed in purplish bracts, are undeveloped male flowers.
Hawaiian's wrapped food in banana leaves and baked it. Sections of banana stem were put into the imu to provide steam for moist cooking.
Mai'a was not a staple in the Hawaiian diet, but it provided variety when kalo was less abundant. Clumps of mai'a were planted on sides of loi, or taro terraces.
There were three types: those eaten raw, those eaten raw or cooked, and those only eaten cooked. All except three varieties were kapu, or forbidden, for women to eat. Photos by Priscilla Millen.
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