Banana plant, Andasibe, Madagascar

''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' is the accepted name for the hybrid between ''Musa acuminata'' and ''Musa balbisiana''. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of ''M. acuminata'' alone. Linnaeus originally used the name ''M. paradisiaca'' only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, ''Musa sapientum'', is thus a synonym of ''Musa''.. more