Bananas are the most popular tropical fruit that offers great taste and nutrition. There are around 1000 different types of bananas all over the world, and each of them comes with unique color and flavor! Here are some of the best Types of Bananas you can have!
Botanical Name: Musa acuminata
USDA Zone: 4
Check out our article on growing Bananas in pots here!
Types of Bananas
Bananas are divided into two main categories: Dessert and Plantains.
Dessert Bananas
1. Cavendish Bananas
These bananas are the most common variety, easily available in supermarkets in the United States. They are available in young unripe green to fully ripe, smooth yellow to riper dark yellow with brown spots. You can add them in smoothies, pancakes, or banana bread.
2. Gros Michel
This variety has a similar taste and size as Cavendish. It is not available as freely as the other varieties. Gros Michel has a sweet taste, a strong smell, with a creamier texture, and can be used in the preparation of banana pies!
3. Lady Finger
‘Lady Finger’ bananas are 4-5 inches long, cigar-shaped sweet fruit. They have a bright yellow thin peel with dark flecks when fully ripen. The flesh is creamy and more delicious than the other common banana varieties.
4. Blue Java
Blue Java bananas have vanilla ice-cream like flavor, and are also famous as ‘Ice cream bananas.’ They have silver-blue skin that turns pale yellow when ripe. The fruit has aromatic soft and sweet flesh. Add them to smoothies or relish their distinctive taste raw!
5. Manzano
Also known as ‘apple bananas,’ they are stout and plump, with a thick firm peel and a light, creamy flesh. Young apple bananas have a tangy and sweet taste with a hint of apple. When the fruit ripens, they have a tart-apple aroma and a flavor of tropical profile with notes of strawberry and pineapple.
6. Red Bananas
Red bananas have red-purple skin, sweet flesh with a pink and orange tinge. Few of them are small and plump than Cavendish banana. When fully ripen, they have a cream to light pink flesh. Some of the fruits have a slight raspberry taste, and others have an earthy flavor.
7. Goldfinger Bananas
Goldfinger variety is native to Honduras. It is cold-tolerant, wind, and disease-resistant. The fruit has an apple-like sweet flavor and does not turn brown when cut. This variety is a cross between Cavendish and Lady Finger.
8. Nanjangud Banana
This banana variety is the most important crop in India. It is grown in Mysore and Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka, India. The fruit is famous for its unique taste and aroma and slightly tart flavor, because of a distinct method of cultivation and black clay alluvial saline soil around Nanjangud.
9. Praying Hands
Praying hands bananas are an unusual variety with two adjoining ‘hands’ that grow merged, hence the name. These bananas are relatively less sweet than other types and have an exceptional vanilla flavor.
Here’s everything you need to know about keeping bananas fresh and flavorful!
Cooking or Plantain Bananas
Bananas falling in this category have a neutral taste and generally boiled, fried, or roasted due to more starchy texture and low sugar content. You can also consume them raw when ripe.
10. Orinoco
Orinoco banana is hardy, that survives well in cold climates and winds. They require support when bearing huge heads of fruit. The texture becomes silky and soft when they mature, with a firm and fibrous peel. However, these bananas are comparatively starchy but have a delicious sweet taste and smooth texture.
11. Fehi
Fehi banana has orange to red skin, with yellow or orange flesh. It is considered more nutritious and delicious when boiled or baked. This variety is stated as ‘unpleasantly astringent’ when eaten raw as the fruit has a higher amount of starch and low sugar compared to the other banana varieties.
12. Bluggoe
Bluggoe banana bears fruits in large and straight shape. This variety has a starchy texture and resistant to Panama disease. Though it can be eaten raw people in Burma, Thailand, southern India, and East Africa use it for cooking only.
13. Macho Plantain
Macho Plantain is common in Florida. It is the most popularly grown variety in the United States. This variety has a deep sweet-and-sour taste, making it perfect to fry or saute in butter or roast on the grill.
14. Pisang Raja
Also Known as Musa Belle banana, Pisang Raja is a popular variety in Indonesia. It has a slightly grainy texture and sweet flavor with a thick peel. The fruit is popular in the preparation of banana pancakes, which is a famous snack in Indonesia.
15. Lady’s Finger Bananas
Lady’s Finger bananas are small and sweet than the mild and long Cavendish variety. You can use them in the preparation of portion-control snacks for kids. They are popular in salads, thanks to their small size!
16. Barangan Bananas
Barangan Banana has a mildly sweet taste, with yellow-colored peel with black dots. Its flesh is seedless and pure white. This variety is quite popular and enjoyed as a dessert in many regions across the tropics.
17. Dwarf Jamaican
Also known as Cuban red banana, it turns sunset yellow when ripe. It is smaller than Cavendish variety and has creamy to pink flesh with a raspberry flavor. You can slice and use in salads or eat it raw when ripe.
Check out our article on using dried banana peel as fertilizer here!
Lynn
September 19, 2020 At 11:56 pm
I have a banana tree in my yard if I send a picture can you tell me what kind it is
Reply
bob
September 30, 2020 At 10:58 am
no
Reply
Rachel
January 19, 2021 At 6:07 am
me neither
Reply
Madeline
February 5, 2021 At 8:07 am
lynn what type of banana tree do you have? do you know how to attach a picture i would love to see your banana tree?
Reply
Aaron
March 26, 2021 At 5:13 pm
I’m glad you’re a decent human being.
Reply
Samuel
April 1, 2021 At 12:52 am
Send me a picture
Reply
Danny
March 11, 2021 At 9:12 am
Nice information , I have about 15 varieties of banana and plantain at home currently ( piranha ceylon, grain nain, namwah, Mona lisa,hua moa, Apple manzano,gold finger, improve mysore, gros&Michel, blue java,dwarf plantain, Samaritans x cross,Puerto Rican plantain, tall red, French red, giant plantain,paradisiaca plantain and fei fei banana trees. I have all these varieties at home.
Reply
Sumana
March 17, 2021 At 9:08 pm
Wow
Are you selling any baby plants
Reply
metahacker
May 3, 2021 At 12:25 am
which ones do you like the best?
Reply
dave
November 19, 2021 At 12:12 am
banana
Reply
Sravan
July 18, 2021 At 10:39 pm
Hi Danny,
Please share your contact number else please call me on 9948557766, I need those banana varieties saplings
Reply
Margaret Enasio
June 5, 2021 At 8:37 am
I want to buy Fehi banana plant and blue java banana. How much?
Please advise me
Reply
Joanne Fowler
July 3, 2021 At 8:02 am
I recieved 2 banana trees from my mother when she visited Florida. The two have had pups now I have a dozen. We live in Tennesee and would like to put them in the ground.I do not know if they would survive outdoors for I do not know what type they are. I would greatly appreciate any information.
Reply
Ranjna
July 27, 2021 At 4:26 pm
Your page is so good n your information of bananas again so good. Thanks
Reply
Johan
September 28, 2021 At 5:10 pm
When I was living in Guinée Bissau many yrs ago, there was a sort of green banana that did not change color when it got ripe, so still green. It only got more and more black spotted.
They were a little bit more narrow than most other bananas, and was very tasty and sweet, with a little tangy touch. I have never seen these bananas anywhere else, and would like to know the name of them. Anyone here know anything about these?
Reply
MK
October 27, 2021 At 9:51 am
Sounds like what we in SE Asia call pisang nangka.
Reply
Guest
June 2, 2022 At 7:49 am
Gros Michel banana, these bananas are very expensive and rare now since they almost went extinct from a disease around the 1950s
Reply
John Emmanuel Zepeda Briones
November 15, 2021 At 6:18 pm
Hi! any knowledgeable person here? Just wanna ask what causes these variation among banana fruits. Also where are they found
Reply
Robert matchett
January 25, 2022 At 3:11 pm
I have a blue java a cavendish and a lady finger banana tree , i love to grow asian herbs and vegetables and im very thankful i have my fathers green thumb
Reply
Robert matchett
January 25, 2022 At 3:14 pm
I do have baby plants but none of them are for sale
Reply
Linda Garner
March 12, 2022 At 12:10 am
I have a ice cream banana tree I just purchased. About 1 foot tall. In Florida now but going north in May and coming back to Florida in November. If my potted bana tree is to tall for move can I cut it back
Reply
Banana swinger
March 17, 2022 At 12:33 pm
I got a banana for you
Reply
no bananas
March 29, 2022 At 1:21 pm
no bananas for you, thank you :(
Reply
Elizabeth Noutchet
April 23, 2022 At 7:58 am
Thanks for the information about bananas. My favourite is the blue banana which I could see and taste it.
Reply
jeff
May 13, 2022 At 4:28 am
these are pretty cool bananas
Reply
jeff
May 13, 2022 At 4:29 am
can i get som bananas
Reply
Arnel
August 16, 2022 At 7:13 am
where I can get the seedlings of red bananas and the fehi variety?
Reply
HungryTiny
September 21, 2022 At 5:14 am
I need to find different kinds bananas to grow at home, midwest USA. The store is too expensive and we are so hungry. We have a warm enough porch for potted. Thanks friends.
Reply
bob
September 30, 2020 At 10:58 am
no
Reply
Rachel
January 19, 2021 At 6:07 am
me neither
Reply
Madeline
February 5, 2021 At 8:07 am
lynn what type of banana tree do you have? do you know how to attach a picture i would love to see your banana tree?
Reply
Aaron
March 26, 2021 At 5:13 pm
I’m glad you’re a decent human being.
Reply
Samuel
April 1, 2021 At 12:52 am
Send me a picture
Reply
I have a banana tree in my yard if I send a picture can you tell me what kind it is
- Rachel
- January 19, 2021 At 6:07 am
- me neither
- Reply
no
me neither
- Aaron
- March 26, 2021 At 5:13 pm
- I’m glad you’re a decent human being.
- Reply
lynn what type of banana tree do you have? do you know how to attach a picture i would love to see your banana tree?
I’m glad you’re a decent human being.
Send me a picture
- Sumana
- March 17, 2021 At 9:08 pm
- Wow
- Are you selling any baby plants
- Reply
- metahacker
- May 3, 2021 At 12:25 am
- which ones do you like the best?
- Reply
- dave
- November 19, 2021 At 12:12 am
- banana
- Reply
- Sravan
- July 18, 2021 At 10:39 pm
- Hi Danny,
- Please share your contact number else please call me on 9948557766, I need those banana varieties saplings
- Reply
Nice information , I have about 15 varieties of banana and plantain at home currently ( piranha ceylon, grain nain, namwah, Mona lisa,hua moa, Apple manzano,gold finger, improve mysore, gros&Michel, blue java,dwarf plantain, Samaritans x cross,Puerto Rican plantain, tall red, French red, giant plantain,paradisiaca plantain and fei fei banana trees. I have all these varieties at home.
Wow Are you selling any baby plants
- dave
- November 19, 2021 At 12:12 am
- banana
- Reply
which ones do you like the best?
banana
Hi Danny,
Please share your contact number else please call me on 9948557766, I need those banana varieties saplings
I want to buy Fehi banana plant and blue java banana. How much? Please advise me
I recieved 2 banana trees from my mother when she visited Florida. The two have had pups now I have a dozen. We live in Tennesee and would like to put them in the ground.I do not know if they would survive outdoors for I do not know what type they are. I would greatly appreciate any information.
Your page is so good n your information of bananas again so good. Thanks
- MK
- October 27, 2021 At 9:51 am
- Sounds like what we in SE Asia call pisang nangka.
- Reply
- Guest
- June 2, 2022 At 7:49 am
- Gros Michel banana, these bananas are very expensive and rare now since they almost went extinct from a disease around the 1950s
- Reply
When I was living in Guinée Bissau many yrs ago, there was a sort of green banana that did not change color when it got ripe, so still green. It only got more and more black spotted. They were a little bit more narrow than most other bananas, and was very tasty and sweet, with a little tangy touch. I have never seen these bananas anywhere else, and would like to know the name of them. Anyone here know anything about these?
Sounds like what we in SE Asia call pisang nangka.
Gros Michel banana, these bananas are very expensive and rare now since they almost went extinct from a disease around the 1950s
Hi! any knowledgeable person here? Just wanna ask what causes these variation among banana fruits. Also where are they found
I have a blue java a cavendish and a lady finger banana tree , i love to grow asian herbs and vegetables and im very thankful i have my fathers green thumb
I do have baby plants but none of them are for sale
I have a ice cream banana tree I just purchased. About 1 foot tall. In Florida now but going north in May and coming back to Florida in November. If my potted bana tree is to tall for move can I cut it back
I got a banana for you
no bananas for you, thank you :(
Thanks for the information about bananas. My favourite is the blue banana which I could see and taste it.
these are pretty cool bananas
can i get som bananas
where I can get the seedlings of red bananas and the fehi variety?
I need to find different kinds bananas to grow at home, midwest USA. The store is too expensive and we are so hungry. We have a warm enough porch for potted. Thanks friends.
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