Banana, fruit or herb?

[Owen69]

Is banana a fruit or a herb

[rja211077]

definitely a fruit. here's one for you. is a potato a vegetable or a interplanetary space craft?

[pinus]

A Google search on banana would have given you the answer http://www.banana.com/ It's a herb

[football]

The banana plant is not a tree. It is actually the world's largest herb! It is a plantain, so not a fruit.

[smudge]

Ask Anniekon!

[Ashley]

Both. A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant: see answer regarding tomatoes), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks. However, the banana plant, though it is called a 'banana-tree' in popular usage, is technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or 'herb'), not a tree, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/banana :)

[Wisebird]

Thanks Smudge! Don't care what it is - only know it's evil!!

[female19]

fruit who on earth told you it was a herb?

[Owen69]

So come on guys that is about 50/50 I have heard it is a herb can any one give me the definitive answer!?

[Canib]

OED says: herb: 1. A plant of which the stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a shrub or a tree), but remains more or less soft and succulent, and dies down to the ground (or entirely) after flowering. 2. Applied to plants of which the leaves, or stem and leaves, are used for food or medicine, or in some way for their scent or flavour. The banana seems to be like 1, but not so much like 2. It says this of fruit: The edible product of a plant or tree, consisting of the seed and its envelope, esp. the latter when it is of a juicy pulpy nature, as in the apple, orange, plum, etc. That sounds much more like a banana which it calls a fruit. Because the leaves are not used as an aromatic in cooking, it does not seem to be much of an herb. So, lacking further evidence to the contrary, I would have to disagree with banana.com and say that it is a fruit.