The Dwarf Cavendish banana is a widely grown and commercially important Cavendishcultivar. The name "Dwarf Cavendish" is in reference to the height of the pseudostem, not the fruit.[1] Young plants have maroon or purple blotches on their leaves but quickly lose them as they mature. It is one of the most commonly planted banana varieties from the Cavendish group, and the main source of commercial Cavendish bananas along with Grand Nain.[2][3][4][5]
The Chatsworth bananas were shipped off to various places in the Pacific around the 1850s. It is believed that some of them may have ended up in the Canary Islands,[5] though other authors believe that the bananas in the Canary Islands had been there since the fifteenth century and had been introduced through other means, namely by early Portuguese explorers who obtained them from West Africa and were later responsible for spreading them to the Caribbean.[2] African bananas in turn were introduced from Southeast Asia into Madagascar by early Austronesian sailors.[6] In 1888, bananas from the Canary Islands were imported into England by Thomas Fyffe. These bananas are now known to belong to the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar.[7]
Dwarf Cavendish leaves are broad with short petioles. Its shortness makes it stable, wind-resistant, and easier to manage. This, in addition to its fast growth rate, makes it ideal for plantation cultivation.[9] An easily recognizable characteristic of this cultivar is that the male bracts and flowers are not shed.
The fruits of the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar range from about 15 to 25cm in length, and are thin skinned. Each plant can bear up to 90 fingers.[10]
^Phillip Rowe & Franklin E. Rosales (1996). "Bananas and Plantains". In Jules Janick & James N. Moore (ed.). Fruit Breeding. Vol. I. Tree and Tropical Fruits. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 169–171. ISBN9780471310143.
^Peter N. Davies, "Fyffes and the Banana", 1990, 23–51
