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Gros Michel

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Gros Michel
Gros Michel bananas in various stages of ripening
SpeciesMusa acuminata
Cultivar groupAAA Group
CultivarGros Michel
Originnative from Southeast Asia,[1] selectively cultivated in Martinique, Jamaica[2]

Gros Michel (French pronunciation: [ɡʁo miʃɛl]), often translated and known as "Big Mike", is an export cultivar of banana and was, until the 1950s, the main variety grown.[3] The physical properties of the Gros Michel make it an excellent export produce; its thick peel makes it resilient to bruising during transport and the dense bunches that it grows in make it easy to ship.[4] However, due to its vulnerability to Panama disease, it has been almost entirely replaced in the banana industry by the Cavendish cultivar.

Taxonomy

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Gros Michel is a triploid cultivar of the wild banana Musa acuminata, belonging to the AAA group.[5]

Its official designation is Musa acuminata (AAA Group) 'Gros Michel'.

Synonyms include:

  • Musa acuminata L. cv. 'Gros Michel'
  • Musa × paradisiaca L. cv. 'Gros Michel'

Gros Michel is known as Guineo Gigante, Banano, and Plátano Roatán in Spanish. It is also known as Thihmwe in Burmese, กล้วยหอมทอง (Kluai hom thong) in Thailand, Pisang Ambon in Malay, and Chuối tiêu cao in Vietnamese.[5][6]

Cultivation history

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Brandes: Banana Wilt—Banana plants of the Gros Michel variety in Costa Rica attacked by the wilt organism. (1919)

French naturalist Nicolas Baudin carried a few corms of this banana from Southeast Asia, depositing them at a botanical garden on the Caribbean island of Martinique. In 1835, French botanist Jean François Pouyat carried Baudin's fruit from Martinique to Jamaica.[7] Originally called the "Figue Baudin" ("Baudin's fig"), the fruits were later referred to as "Poyo", after their Jamaican importer; the origin of the name "Gros Michel" is unknown.[8]

Gros Michel bananas were grown on massive plantations in Honduras, Costa Rica, and elsewhere in Central America. The variety was once the dominant export banana to Europe and North America, grown in Central America but, in the 1950s, Panama disease, a wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, wiped out vast tracts of Gros Michel plantations in Central America, though it is still grown on non-infected land throughout the region.[9]

By the 1960s, the exporters of Gros Michel bananas were unable to keep trading such a susceptible cultivar, and they started growing resistant cultivars belonging to the Cavendish subgroup (another Musa acuminata AAA).[9]

A 2013 paper described experiments to create a version of Gros Michel which is resistant to black sigatoka, another fungal infection.[10]

Cultural references

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"Yes! We Have No Bananas", a novelty song about a grocer from the 1922 Broadway revue Make It Snappy, is said to have been inspired by a shortage of Gros Michel bananas, which began with the infestation of Panama disease early in the 20th century.[11]

The Gros Michel has a higher concentration of isoamyl acetate, the ester commonly used for "banana" food flavoring, than the Cavendish,[12] with some describing its taste as an amplified and artificial-seeming version of the Cavendish.[13] A food history myth is that artificial banana flavor was specifically developed from the Gros Michel, but isoamyl acetate is a simple compound and was not based on any specific cultivar.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Marin, Douglas H.; Sutton, Turner B.; Barker, Kenneth R. (1998). "Dissemination of Bananas in Latin America and the Caribbean and Its Relationship to the Occurrence of Radophouls similis". Plant Disease. 82 (9). Scientific Societies: 964–974. Bibcode:1998PlDis..82..964M. doi:10.1094/pdis.1998.82.9.964. ISSN 0191-2917. PMID 30856847.
  2. ^ Robert J. Lancashire (25 August 2006). "Jamaican bananas and plantains". The Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  3. ^ Koeppel, Dan (18 June 2008). "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas" (Editorial). New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2008.
  4. ^ Berenstein, Nadia (15 February 2016). "Bananas!". Flavor Added: a blog. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  5. ^ a b Michel H. Porcher; Prof. Snow Barlow (19 July 2002). "Sorting Musa names". The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  6. ^ Molina, A.B.; Roa, V.N. (2000). Advancing Banana and Plantain R and D in Asia and the Pacific. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. p. 3. ISBN 978-971-91751-3-1. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  7. ^ Dan Koeppel (2008). Banana: the fate of the fruit that changed the world. Hudson Street Press. pp. 33. ISBN 978-1-4295-9325-0.
  8. ^ Hancock, James F. (17 February 2017). Plantation Crops, Plunder and Power: Evolution and Exploitation. Taylor & Francis. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-351-97708-1. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  9. ^ a b Ploetz, Randy C. (21 December 2005). "Panama Disease: An Old Nemesis Rears Its Ugly Head Part 1: The Beginnings of the Banana Export Trades". American Phytopathological Society. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  10. ^ Kovács, Gabriella; Sági, László; Jacon, Géraldine; Arinaitwe, Geofrey; Busogoro, Jean-Pierre; Thiry, Els; Strosse, Hannelore; Swennen, Rony; Remy, Serge (2013). "Expression of a rice chitinase gene in transgenic banana ('Gros Michel', AAA genome group) confers resistance to black leaf streak disease". Transgenic Research. 22 (1): 117–130. doi:10.1007/s11248-012-9631-1. PMC 3525978. PMID 22791138.
  11. ^ Koeppel, Dan (19 June 2005). "Can This Fruit Be Saved?". Popsci.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  12. ^ Mayer, Johanna (27 September 2017). "Why Don't Banana Candies Taste Like Real Bananas?". sciencefriday.com. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  13. ^ a b Baraniuk, Chris (29 August 2014). "The secrets of fake flavours". BBC Future. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
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