Do Bananas Have Seeds? Interesting Facts and Information About Bananas With Seeds

One of the most common questions people have about bananas is do bananas have seeds? Numerous websites and other resources give short and long answers to this question. Some say yes, some say no and others say that the seed is just a genetic modification.

Below we break down what we know about bananas and help you decide for yourself whether bananas have any seeds or not.

This simple question is the answer to thousands of inquiries each year. The short answer is yes bananas do have seeds, but they are very rare. If you were hoping for a long answer, read on.

Do Bananas Have Seeds?

Yes, banana trees have seeds. Botanically they are berries and come from a fertilized ovary. Berries usually contain seeds, In bananas, the seeds remain inside their fleshy fruits. Ever noticed the little black dots at the core of a banana? These are the seeds.

In commercially grown bananas these remain immature and are not functional. As you can’t grow a plant from immature seeds growing a banana tree by planting a banana is not possible.

The banana varieties that are grown in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa usually have small black seeds inside them.

How Many Seeds Does A Banana Have?

Generally, a banana has 1-6 seeds inside. In a Cavendish banana, the number can reach up to 18 to 22 in each fruit. There is one banana variety that has more than 1000 seeds in them.

What Do Banana Seeds Look Like:

A banana seed is small, about 6 mm in diameter, and is covered with a thick wrinkled seed coat. The plant also produces a seed pod that holds the seeds.

Why Do Some Bananas Have Seeds But Not others?

The banana fruits we consume every day are seedless because they are the result of selective breeding. They are specially chosen to be a part of the dessert, and not to be eaten in the raw form.

Having said that, there are still a few modern varieties of plants that do have seeds.

How Do You Know If A Banana Has Seeds?

The simplest way to find out if a banana has any seeds is to split open the fruit and look inside. 

Why Commercial Bananas Don’t Have Seeds:

Commercial bananas generally won’t have any seeds because they have selectively chosen to be seedless through selective breeding.

Bananas with seeds are usually considered inedible due to their difficulty in chewing and digesting. Disregarding the seeds makes the fruits more palatable and easier to consume. They also have a longer shelf life so you can store them for a longer period of time.

In commercial banana production, people use a process called parthenocarpy meaning developing fruits without the normal fertilization process.

The lack of seeds means these bananas won’t be able to reproduce through fruits and seeds. So you have to propagate the bananas through suckers or banana pups. 

How Are Commercial Bananas Grown?

You might be wondering if a banana plant does not have any seeds, then how do they grow? If you don’t know already there are various methods for plant propagation. In bananas, we use propagation through suckers, offshoots, or banana pups.

You will find these banana pups next to the adult tree. You need to separate these suckers from the adult tree and plant them. We have detailed information on banana propagation in this post here.

Do Wild Bananas Have Seeds:

A wild banana has a lot of small, inedible seeds and smaller fruit. The fruits are much smaller in size than the normal bananas we eat now. Domestication over centuries has bred bananas to produce bigger fruit with smaller seeds until we’ve reached the varieties grown today.

The seeds in wild bananas are larger than in everyday bananas. They can be as large as peas. The seeds of wild banana trees are very important because they are essential for the plants to grow and reproduce.

Wild bananas can grow unusual shapes and sizes, and the banana peels also lack the shin that you usually see in common bananas.

Can You Eat Wild Bananas?

Although not all, you can eat many varieties of wild bananas. Some of them are actually quite delicious to eat. Although most wild varieties have seeds not all of them do.

A variety such as Lady finger bananas is actually quite popular because of their taste. They are sweeter and creamier than everyday bananas. 

So yes you can eat wild bananas depending on their locations and varieties.

Can You Eat Banana Seeds?

Regular banana seeds are not toxic so you can eat them, they are safe to digest. The seeds of a wild banana on the other hand are not that edible, are larger than normal ones, and have a thick seed coat. So although they are not poisonous it’s not worth it to consume them.

Although the seeds are safe to digest, the problem with consuming bananas with seeds is that it becomes rather difficult to eat the pulp.

How To Collect Banana Seeds:

You can collect seeds from fully ripened bananas. Peel off the fruit and you can easily separate the seeds from the fruit.

The seeds will have pulp attached to them. You can separate the seeds from the pulp by using the method we discussed in this post. 

You can use the seeds to grow new banana plants. I hope this post helped you clear your doubts. you can read more about bananas here.