The banana plantain (Musa paradisiaca) is the fruit of a long-lived herbaceous plant belonging to the same sort(species) as hammers it said "soft" (Musa sapientum) , the banana-fruit which we know well, whose very nearby hybrid it is.

But it is about two very different fruits:

The banana plantain is a banana to be cooked, which consumes rather as a vegetable, while the soft banana is a fruit almost always tasted believed.

The first plantations of banana tree would be native of South-East Asia, probably the Malaysia.

If the banana plantain distinguishes itself from his(her) "soft" cousins by its size (25 in 40 cms) , its real peculiarity holds the fact that the starch contained in its flesh is not transformed into sugars with maturity.

Reason for which it is necessary to cook it to consume it.

The banana tree is a very particular plant. It is in fact about a huge grass.
Indeed, its underground stem gives rise to leaves 3 meters long which imbricated the some in the others form a kind of trunk.
At first directed downward, "hands" (groups of young people banana) begin by developing a fast recovery which explains the curvature of fruits.

The banana plantain is imported all year and comes mainly from Martinique, from Ecuador, of Costa Rica, from Colombia and from Ivory Coast.