One of the mysteries of banana flower development is how the plant first forms its flowers. Banana flowers form deep within the stem of the plant and get hidden within the bases of the leaves. By the time the stem appears above the leaves, the flowers have nearly finished growing. You cannot see the first stages of flower development without cutting apart the banana plant. In 1953, one of my scientific teachers, Dr. Abraham Fahn, described how flowers form in the Dwarf Cavendish banana plant, a plant with bananas very similar to the type you eat. Dr. Fahn described how each group of flowers forms. In bananas, these groups are called "hands," because the bananas resemble fingers. The first flower is formed on the right side of the hand. The rest of the flowers form in a zigzag pattern, back and forth between the top and the bottom rows. Similar patterns have been described in related banana species.

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