Have you ever found the usual banana tree in your grocery store to be a little , well , bland ? You ’re not alone . Banana enthusiasts in late years have begun constellate to richer alternatives like the Blue Java banana ( Musa acuminata ' Blue Java ' ) , which is grown in many parts of Asia , Australia and Hawaii . The unripe fruit train on a greenish - silver - blue air huedue to its wax coating , hence the name . Its white shape contains ignominious seeds , which is n’t exactly common for adessert banana .
It ’s also widely known as the " Ice Cream " banana tree for itssweet and subdued physique , which wear a law of similarity in taste to vanilla extract custard or ice cream . you could eat the ripe banana raw . Others suggest mixing it into asmoothiewithpeanut butteror doing the old conjuring trick of freeze and blending the banana to make anall - natural internal-combustion engine - emollient alternative . Options for acquire the Blue Java outside of Asia and the South Pacific are limited . you could purchase the banana in bulk fromthis Florida - basedcompany . For our friends in Hawaii : Several local grower school the Ice Cream banana , so scout out Fannie Merritt Farmer ' markets on thebig islandandOahu .
But if you do n’t want to spend a fortune transportation bananas or traveling to Hawaii , you could always sample purchasinga treeand institute one in your own backyard or even indoors . Unlike other banana , Blue Java can survive colder climates . If you know inzones 8 - 11 on the hardiness scale , you may implant them outdoors in your backyard ; if you endure in a zone 4 or higher , you cangrow them on your patio and and move them indoorsduring chillier metre of year . But take in out : These unfit son can develop to heights of15 - plus feet(4.57 - plus meters ) . Find tip on worry for the treehere .
The mature interest in more unorthodox bananas like the Blue Java comes at a prison term of great interruption in the globose banana tree mart . Everyone fromscientiststo the culture medium have proclaimed that abanana crisisis flowering before our eyes . We ’ve seen this bechance before with the Gros Michel ( Musa acuminata ' Gros Michel ' ) banana , also known as ' Big Mike . ' ( Bananas have playfulness names , if you have n’t realized that yet ) . Although the Gros Michel was the " it " banana in the U.S. pre - World War II , it dropped off the market after it was brought down by Panama disease . Then , the Cavendish banana tree came along en masse . Approximately 40 percent of global banana tree production today consists of the Cavendish , making it the de - facto king of the banana tree world .
The Cavendish thrived because it was thought to be genetically immune to Panama disease . And while that ’s still on-key , the fungusFusarium oxysporum f.sp . cubense , which make Panama disease , has been hitting the Cavendish hard in recent days . Another var. of the fungus know astropical race 4 ( TR4)has been lay waste to the Cavendish ( among other bananas ) , go to concerns about the fungus crippling banana production and potentially contributing to economic going andfood insecurity in Latin America and Africa . Could the Blue Java or another banana tree prove to be more resistant to the nisus and dethrone the Cavendish ? Only meter will tell .
