Gros Michel

Cultivation history

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. 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.

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.

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).

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

Cultural references

"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.

The Gros Michel has a higher concentration of isoamyl acetate, the ester commonly used for "banana" food flavoring, than the Cavendish, with some describing its taste as an amplified and artificial-seeming version of the Cavendish. 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.