We ’ve gone banana tree for bananas . The average American corrode more than 28 pounds ( 13 kilogram ) of banana tree annually , more than any other yield [ source : Zelenko ] . This reality ca-ca the impending " bananapocalypse " even more worrying .
Unlike hearsay of thezombiepocalypse , the bananapocalypse is a genuine thing , at least for the world ’s most popular melodic phrase : the Cavendish banana tree . You may have never heard the name " Cavendish , " but these are the bananas that are , to an overwhelming extent , most often sold in grocery store storage .
A pathogen that first appear in Asia and Australia , then migrate to banana tree Plantation in Africa and the Middle East by 2013 , has the potential to completely pass over the Cavendish off the typeface of the Earth . Latin America and the Caribbean are potential the next places on its hit list . This infestation would devastate the earth ’s Cavendish banana tree supplies , as more than 80 percent of the world ’s export bananas come from these regions [ seed : Butler ] .
Known as the Tropical Race 4 variant of theFusarium oxysporumf . sp . Cubense ( Foc ) fungus , the blight is presently incurable and has wipe out total sales booth of banana plants . Commonly call Panama disease , the fungous strain kill banana plant from within by infiltrating the chaff , eliminate their ability to absorbwaterand have the leave to wilt . Without their large leave for shade , banana plants welcome a pernicious sunburn . And without weewee , they dry out . The threefold hit causes dead plants , an outcome that is magnified when integral plantations come under the fungus ’s fire .
Part of what make the bananapocalypse a likely possibility is the ease with which the fungus is unfold . The fungus travels to new targets through the movement of microscopic spores . These spores can bond themselves to the clothing or place of farmworkers , and show up in water sources or dirt . When the fungus does take hold , it square off into the land and can be nearly insufferable to rid . Once soil is infect , the fungus can take decades to run its class [ source : Zelenko ] .
Cavendish bananas are most at risk . An former version of this fungus , recognise asTropical Race 1 , is the reason you do n’t buy a banana tree call Big Mike alternatively . Tropical Race 1 all but wiped out commercial-grade yield of the cultivar some 70 years ago . The banana , orotund and scented than the Cavendish bananas we ’ve issue forth to know and love , is now a little - known ecological niche product .
There is hope , though . The fungus is slow to progress . Once spotted , it can be further slow down through the removal and destruction of septic plant . In addition , a few Cavendish plants have mutated and developed a partial electrical resistance to the fungous mental strain . Other hybrids are being bred to withstand the onslaught [ source : Butler ] .
If all else fails , banana growers may end up turning to yet another specie – one that is , at least for now , repellent to the fungus .
