Explore Banana Fun Facts & Trivia

Ready for some fun facts about bananas and Chiquita history?
Check these out…

• Did you know there are ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that depict people with bananas?
• Bananas have been around as early back as 6th century B.C. (this is when they were first mentioned in literature)
• Miss Chiquita first appeared on the famous banana labels in 1963.
• Did you know there is a museum in Auburn, Washington dedicated to bananas? It's called the Washington Banana Museum.
• The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of tightly overlapping leaves.
• Did you know bananas, apples & watermelons float in water?
• You can use the inside of a banana peel to polish patent leather shoes.
• The average American eats 27 pounds of bananas each year!
• A man in India once ate 81 bananas in a half an hour.
• Bananas don't grow on trees. They're actually a giant herb.
• Bananas are one of the few foods to contain the 6 major vitamin groups.
• If you peel a banana from the bottom up you won't get the string things.
• Those stringy things are called phloem (pronounced FLOM).
• The word banana comes from an Arab word “banan” meaning finger.
• An individual banana is called a finger. A bunch of bananas is called a hand.
• The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which mean fruit of the wise men.
• Bananas are a very rich source of vitamin B6, which your brain needs to function properly and make you wise.
• The phrase "going bananas" was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary because of the banana's connection with monkeys.

Wow! That's a lot of great banana information. If you're looking for more and want to test your Chiquita banana knowledge, take our banana quiz.