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Celtic heritage

Rue Kéréon with the Cathedral of Saint Corentin of Quimper in the background, Quimper, Brittany, France

Some background information:

The Cathedral of Saint Corentin of Quimper (in French: "Cathédrale Saint-Corentin de Quimper"), is a Roman Catholic cathedral and national monument of Brittany in France. It is located in the town of Quimper and is the seat of the Diocese of Quimper and Léon. Saint Corentin was its first bishop.

The cathedral is notable in that, unlike other Gothic cathedrals, it slightly bends in the middle to match the contours of its location, and avoid an area that was swampy at the time of the construction. The church was the site of a devastating fire in 1620 when the bell tower was burned and the populace saw a green devil in the flames.

According to legend King Gradlon met Saint Corentin on the mountain Mėnez-Hom and was so impressed by the strength of his religious faith that he invited the hermit to become Bishop of Quimper.

The cathedral replaced an old Roman church which had a chapel attached to it called the "Chapelle de la Victoire" where Alain Canhiart, Count of Cornouaille, was buried in 1058. It was in 1239 that the first part of the cathedral was built. At that time Bishop Rainaud commissioned the building of the choir, but it was not until the coming of Duke Jean V at the beginning of the 15th-century that momentum gathered and the choir was covered with criss cross vaulting. In the same century, the western side of the cathedral and the nave emerged. The French revolution and the subsequent terror put paid to further progress, but after the Concordat, restoration of the cathedral followed as well as some additional construction.

When the cathedral was completed the choir was out of line with the nave, having a slight curve to the left, this to avoid disturbing an older chapel which contained the tomb of Alain Canhiart. Thus the cathedral has an odd shape, and rather imaginatively some have likened the top part of the cathedral’s inclination to the left as suggesting Christ’s head leaning to the left when he hung on the cross.

The choir of the cathedral presents four right-hand bays with ambulatory and side chapels. It is extended towards the east of a three-sided choir apse which opens to a semi-circle composed of five chapels, an apsidal chapel of two bays and a flat apse consecrated to Our Lady. The nave is made up of six bays with one at the level of the facade towers and flanked by double aisles – one wide and one narrow (split into side chapels) – in an extension of the choir arrangements. A prominent transept links the two parts, whose significance recalls the large cathedrals of the Ile de France at the start of the 13th century.

The city of Quimper is the capital of the Breton department of Finistère in northwestern France. The town has about 64,000 residents and is built on the confluence of the three rivers Steir, Odet and Jet. Its name is the Breton word "kemper", meaning "confluence". Quimper is the ancient capital of Cornouaille, Brittany’s most traditional region, and has a distinctive Breton Celtic character.

Quimper was originally settled during Roman times. By the year 495, the town had become a Bishopric. Subsequently it also became the capital of the counts of Cornouailles. In the eleventh century, it was united with the Duchy of Brittany. During the War of the Breton Succession (1341 to 1364), the town suffered considerable damages. In 1364, the Duchy of Brittany passed to the House of Montfort.

High walls were built which surrounded the town area of around fifteen hectares. By 1450, about 4,500 people lived within these walls, but the area was only urbanised partially as it also included fields, orchards and gardens.

With the attachment of Brittany to France in 1532, the rivalry between episcopal and ducal power still continued but eased. An oligarchy of minor nobility and middle-class asserted itself. It provided a number of doctors, lawyers and sailors such as the Admiral of Kergelen. These large families had private mansions built in the city and acquired country estates.

At the end of the 17th century, Quimper numbered about 9,000 inhabitants. The walls of the town, having lost their military use, were no longer maintained. The fortified entrances were demolished, whilst the construction of new bridges improved traffic conditions. But the town had inherited an anarchic and insalubrious structure from the Middle Ages. In 1762, a fire storm ravaged the wooden houses of Rue Kéréon. In the following yeas a new building plan was established, the layout of the streets was straightened and stonewalled buildings were constructed.

In 1790, Quimper was designated county town of the department. In 1792, religious congregations were suppressed and numerous priests went into exile. Several family buyers profited from the sale of clergy property and several convents as well as other religious buildings were converted into barracks and prisons or held new administrations. Under the regime of the terror, revolutionary excesses multiplied: In this context witch hunts of priests, waves of arrests and public executions, ransacking of churches and the cathedral as well as destruction of statues and reliquaries took place.

Following the turmoil of the revolutionary period there was a time interval of relative prosperity during the Consulate and the Empire. Quimper took advantage of the marine blockade of Brest by the British Navy. The small merchant port on the Odet became the depot of the French wartime and merchant navy. But the peacetime of 1815 put an end to this intense activity.

In the 19th century, the ransacked religious buildings were restored or rebuilt. In 1857, the spires of the cathedral towers, classified as historic monuments in 1847, were constructed by Joseph Bigot. The arrival of the railway in 1864 brought new industrial activities: Potteries and food processing industries like canneries or ice factories occupied new industrial estates.

During World War II, Quimper was occupied by the Germans since 18th June 1940. The city – though spared the bombardments – suffered hardships, arrests and deportations. Once the Normandy landings were declared, Breton Resistance members liberated the town on 8th August 1944 after violent clashes.

The town’s best known product is Quimper faience. It has been made here since 1690, using bold provincial designs of Jean-Baptiste Bousquet. And the city’s eating establishments boast some of the best crêpes and cider in Brittany.

Posted by Silanov on 2017-08-09 05:00:36

Tagged: , EU , Europe , France , Frankreich , Brittany , Bretagne , Finistère , Finistere , Quimper , Quimper Cathedral , Cathédrale Saint-Corentin de Quimper , Cathédrale Saint-Corentin , cathedral , Cathédrale , Kathedrale , dome , Dom , Münster , spires , Kirchtürme , church , église , Kirche , Catholic Cathedral , katholische Kathedrale , Catholic , katholisch , Gothic style , gotischer Stil , Gotik , Gothic , gotisch , street , Straße , city , town , Stadt , old town , historic quarter , historic district , Altstadt , historic , historisch , Middle Ages , dark age , Mittelalter , medieval , mitttelalterlich , framework , Fachwerk , timber framework , wooden framework , timber framing , half-timber house , half-timbered house , Fachwerkhaus , half-timber building , half-timbered building , Fachwerkgebäude , architecture , Architektur , houses , Häuser , shops , Geschäfte , restaurants , cafés , sky , Himmel , blue sky , blauer Himmel , summer , Sommer , September , 2016

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“Great Tit” “Parus major” P2060156

More learning on the new gear at Stockgrove CP 6/2/2019 Great tit From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search Great tit The bird has a black head with a prominent white cheek, a greenish back, a blue wing with a prominent white bar, and a yellowish belly. Female in Lancashire, UK Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] Scientific classification edit Kingdom:Animalia Phylum:Chordata Class:Aves Order:Passeriformes Family:Paridae Genus:Parus Species:P. major Binomial name Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 Map of Eurasia and North Africa with ranges depicted in four colours Range of current and former subspecies groups

Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit (Parus major) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland; most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinctive from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.

The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.[2] Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree. The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods. The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks. The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens. The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology. Taxonomy The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae.[3] Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus "tit" and maior "larger".[4] Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.[5]

Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups. The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group’s nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia. The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit. This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct (monophyletic) and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.[6][7]

A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P.m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago. The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago. The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet. Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups. The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit (Parus cinereus), and the Japanese tit (Parus minor), but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.[8] This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.[9] The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit,[10] a move that has not been without criticism.[11]

The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East. The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations. The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch. This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.[10]

The genus Parus once held most of the species of tit in the family Paridae, but morphological and genetic studies led to the splitting of that large genus in 1998. The great tit was retained in Parus, which, along with Cyanistes comprise a lineage of tits known as the "non-hoarders", with reference to the hoarding behaviour of members of the other clade. The genus Parus is still the largest in the family, but may be split again.[10] Other than those species formerly considered to be subspecies, the great tit’s closest relatives are the white-naped and green-backed tits of southern Asia. Hybrids with tits outside the genus Parus are very rare, but have been recorded with blue tit, coal tit, and probably marsh tit.[12]

Subspecies There are currently 15 recognised subspecies of great tit:[10]

Great tit perched on twig. It has a wide black band down its breast and belly. At Kew Gardens, London. The British subspecies P. m. newtoni has a wider mid-line ventral stripe on the lower belly than the nominate race P. m. newtoni, described by Pražák in 1894,[13] is found across the British Isles. P. m. major, described by Linnaeus in 1758, is found throughout much of Europe, Asia Minor, northern and eastern Kazakhstan, southern Siberia and northern Mongolia, as far as the mid-Amur Valley. P. m. excelsus, described by Buvry in 1857, is found in northwestern Africa. P. m. corsus, described by Kleinschmidt in 1903, is found in Portugal, southern Spain, and Corsica. P. m. mallorcae, described by von Jordans in 1913, is found in the Balearic Islands. P. m. ecki, described by von Jordans in 1970, is found on Sardinia. P. m. niethammeri, described by von Jordans in 1970, is found on Crete. P. m. aphrodite, described by Madarász in 1901, is found in southern Italy, southern Greece, Cyprus and the Aegean Islands. P. m. terrasanctae was described by Hartert in 1910. It is found in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Syria. P. m. karelini, described by Zarudny in 1910, is found in southeastern Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. P. m. blandfordi was described by Pražák in 1894.[13] It is found in north central and southwestern Iran. P. m. bokharensis was described by Lichtenstein in 1823. It is found in southern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and far north of Iran and Afghanistan. Was, along with following two subspecies, once treated as separate species. P. m. turkestanicus, was described by Zarudny & Loudon in 1905, and ranges from east Kazakhstan to extreme north west China and west Mongolia. P. m. ferghanensis, was described by Buturlin in 1912, and is found in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. P. m. kapustini, was described by Portenko in 1954, and is found in north west China (north west Xinjiang) to Mongolia and Siberia.[14] Great tit HR.jpg Description duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous The great tit is large for a tit at 12.5 to 14.0 cm (4.9–5.5 in) in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise. The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts. The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent. There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape. The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive. The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white-wing-bar. The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips. The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller; the bib is less intensely black,[10] as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.[15] Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.[10]

Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies There is some variation in the subspecies. P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly. P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape. P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts. P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts. P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no (or very little) white on the tail. P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream. P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow. P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts. P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail. The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape. It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail. The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group. P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts. P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.[10]

A pair of great tits; the one on the left is female, the second one is male. The colour of the male bird’s breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females. Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.[16] Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.[17] The width of the male’s ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.[15]

Voice 0:00 Great tit : song 0:00 Another song type

Great tit : sonagram

Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs. The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls. Soft single notes such as "pit", "spick", or "chit" are used as contact calls. A loud "tink" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes. One of the most familiar is a "teacher, teacher", often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.[10] In former times, English folk considered the "saw-sharpening" call to be a foretelling of rain.[18] There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.[10]

One explanation for the great tit’s wide repertoire is the Beau Geste hypothesis. The eponymous hero of the novel propped dead soldiers against the battlements to give the impression that his fort was better defended than was really the case. Similarly, the multiplicity of calls gives the impression that the tit’s territory is more densely occupied than it actually is. Whether the theory is correct or not, those birds with large vocabularies are socially dominant and breed more successfully.[19]

Distribution, movements and habitat forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky Mixed-forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe

At nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia. It is found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands. In North Africa it is found in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.[10]

The great tit occupies a range of habitats. It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens. In dense forests, including conifer forests it is usually found in forest clearings. In northern Siberia it is found in boreal taiga. In North Africa it prefers oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves. In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest. Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan group in central Asia, as well as low scrubland, oases; at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.[10]

The great tit is generally not migratory. Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in northern parts of their range. Young birds will disperse from their parents’ territory, but usually not far. Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic, the Netherlands, Britain and even as far as the southern Balkans.[20]

The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States; birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established. Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.[21] Birds were later introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 1960–61 and became established, although their present status is unclear.[22]

Behaviour Diet and feeding Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.[23] Invertebrate prey that are taken include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs (Hemiptera), ants, flies (Diptera), caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.[10] During the breeding season, the tits prefer to feed protein-rich caterpillars to their young.[24] A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.[25] Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.[24] In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet. Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, and include the seeds of beech and hazel. Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables. In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.[10] They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.[23] Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.[12]

Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by "hold-hammering", where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat. Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes. When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads off large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick’s growth.[10]

Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.[10] In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.[26] This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.[27] In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats. This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats. The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.[28] They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.[10] In 2013, some individual great tits were noted to attack, kill and to some extent eat other small birds at wintertime feeding spots in Finland.

Breeding Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.[29] These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.[10] Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully. Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year. If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.[30] Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent. One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.[31]

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden nest with seven chicks. These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Young chicks in the nest Great tits are seasonal breeders. The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location. Most breeding occurs between January and September; in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March. In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December. The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.[10] One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.[32] On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.[33]

Great tit leaving its wooden nest box Leaving nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes. The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers. The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common. Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.[34] Second broods tend to have smaller clutches. Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.[35] The eggs are white with red spots. The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.[10] The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed. The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.[36] The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.[10]

Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape Fledgeling The chicks, like those of all tits, are hatched unfeathered and blind. Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents (in most species it is dun-coloured to avoid predation). The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance. This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents’ attention. This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.[37]

Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving 6 to 7 g (0.21–0.25 oz) of food a day.[10] Both parents provision the chicks with food and aid in nest sanitation by removing faecal packets, with no difference in the feeding effort between the sexes.[38] The nestling period is between 16 and 22 days, with chicks being independent of the parents eight days after fledging. Feeding of the fledgeling may continue after independence, lasting up to 25 days in chicks from the first brood, but as long as 50 days in the second brood.[10] Nestlings from second broods have weaker immune systems and body condition than those from first broods, and hence have a lower juvenile survival rate.[39]

Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness. The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring. In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.[40]

Ecology The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk’s greater need for food for its own developing young.[41][42] The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.[43] Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels (in Britain) and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.[44] A species of biting louse (Mallophaga) described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.[45] The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits. It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.[46] This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus,[46] The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae. Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.[46] Great tits compete with pied flycatchers for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males. Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths. Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.[47]

Relationship with humans adult great tit perched on hand The great tit’s willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed. Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology; it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.[48] A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.[6]

The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment. It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats. It can be very common in urban areas.[10] For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield (a city of half a million people) has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.[49] In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments. In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.[50] This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.[10] The total population is estimated at between 300–1,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km2 (12.5 million sq mi). While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.[1]

Posted by Pitzy’s Pyx, keep snapping away!. on 2019-02-06 17:28:01

Tagged: , Stockgrove Park , Stockgrove Country Park , Greensand Ridge , Leica , 100-400mm , Great Tit , Parus major

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Sheetworld Flannel Fabric

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India – Karnataka – Hampi – Banana Plant – 3

A banana is an edible fruit, botanically a berry, produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. (In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains.) The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used.

Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in at least 107 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and banana beer and as ornamental plants.

Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between "bananas" and "plantains". Especially in the Americas and Europe, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called "plantains". In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the simple two-fold distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.

The term "banana" is also used as the common name for the plants which produce the fruit. This can extend to other members of the genus Musa like the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), pink banana (Musa velutina) and the Fe’i bananas. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, like the snow banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana (Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are classified under the banana family, Musaceae.

DESCRIPTION The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem. Bananas grow in a wide variety of soils, as long as the soil is at least 60 cm deep, has good drainage and is not compacted. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a "stalk" (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. The edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart. Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m tall, with a range from ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ plants at around 3 m to ‘Gros Michel’ at 7 m or more. Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres long and 60 cm wide. They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond look.

When a banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike or inflorescence. A stem develops which grows up inside the pseudostem, carrying the immature inflorescence until eventually it emerges at the top. Each pseudostem normally produces a single inflorescence, also known as the "banana heart". (More are sometimes produced; an exceptional plant in the Philippines produced five.) After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots will normally have developed from the base, so that the plant as a whole is perennial. In the plantation system of cultivation, only one of the offshoots will be allowed to develop in order to maintain spacing. The inflorescence contains many bracts (sometimes incorrectly referred to as petals) between rows of flowers. The female flowers (which can develop into fruit) appear in rows further up the stem (closer to the leaves) from the rows of male flowers. The ovary is inferior, meaning that the tiny petals and other flower parts appear at the tip of the ovary.

The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called "hands"), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3–20 tiers, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh 30–50 kilograms. Individual banana fruits (commonly known as a banana or "finger") average 125 grams, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter.

The fruit has been described as a "leathery berry". There is a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with numerous long, thin strings (the phloem bundles), which run lengthwise between the skin and the edible inner portion. The inner part of the common yellow dessert variety can be split lengthwise into three sections that correspond to the inner portions of the three carpels by manually deforming the unopened fruit. In cultivated varieties, the seeds are diminished nearly to non-existence; their remnants are tiny black specks in the interior of the fruit.

Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive, more so than most other fruits, because of their potassium content and the small amounts of the isotope potassium-40 found in naturally occurring potassium. The banana equivalent dose of radiation is sometimes used in nuclear communication to compare radiation levels and exposures.

ETYMOLOGY The word banana is thought to be of West African origin, possibly from the Wolof word banaana, and passed into English via Spanish or Portuguese.

TAXONOMY The genus Musa was created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The name may be derived from Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, or Linnaeus may have adapted the Arabic word for banana, mauz. Musa is in the family Musaceae. The APG III system assigns Musaceae to the order Zingiberales, part of the commelinid clade of the monocotyledonous flowering plants. Some 70 species of Musa were recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as of January 2013; several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals.

The classification of cultivated bananas has long been a problematic issue for taxonomists. Linnaeus originally placed bananas into two species based only on their uses as food: Musa sapientum for dessert bananas and Musa paradisiaca for plantains. Subsequently further species names were added. However, this approach proved inadequate to address the sheer number of cultivars existing in the primary center of diversity of the genus, Southeast Asia. Many of these cultivars were given names which proved to be synonyms.

In a series of papers published in 1947 onwards, Ernest Cheesman showed that Linnaeus’s Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca were actually cultivars and descendants of two wild seed-producing species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, both first described by Luigi Aloysius Colla. He recommended the abolition of Linnaeus’s species in favor of reclassifying bananas according to three morphologically distinct groups of cultivars – those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa balbisiana, those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa acuminata, and those with characteristics that are the combination of the two. Researchers Norman Simmonds and Ken Shepherd proposed a genome-based nomenclature system in 1955. This system eliminated almost all the difficulties and inconsistencies of the earlier classification of bananas based on assigning scientific names to cultivated varieties. Despite this, the original names are still recognized by some authorities today, leading to confusion.

The currently accepted scientific names for most groups of cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata Colla and Musa balbisiana Colla for the ancestral species, and Musa × paradisiaca L. for the hybrid M. acuminata × M. balbisiana.

Synonyms of M. × paradisica include: A large number of subspecific and varietial names of M. × paradisiaca, including M. p. subsp. sapientum (L.) Kuntze Musa × dacca Horan. Musa × sapidisiaca K.C.Jacob, nom. superfl. Musa × sapientum L., and a large number of its varietal names, including M. × sapientum var. paradisiaca (L.) Baker, nom. illeg.

Generally, modern classifications of banana cultivars follow Simmonds and Shepherd’s system. Cultivars are placed in groups based on the number of chromosomes they have and which species they are derived from. Thus the Latundan banana is placed in the AAB Group, showing that it is a triploid derived from both M. acuminata (A) and M. balbisiana (B). For a list of the cultivars classified under this system see List of banana cultivars.

In 2012, a team of scientists announced they had achieved a draft sequence of the genome of Musa acuminata.

BANANAS & PLANTAINS In regions such as North America and Europe, Musa fruits offered for sale can be divided into "bananas" and "plantains", based on their intended use as food. Thus the banana producer and distributor Chiquita produces publicity material for the American market which says that "a plantain is not a banana". The stated differences are that plantains are more starchy and less sweet; they are eaten cooked rather than raw; they have thicker skin, which may be green, yellow or black; and they can be used at any stage of ripeness. Linnaeus made the same distinction between plantains and bananas when first naming two "species" of Musa. Members of the "plantain subgroup" of banana cultivars, most important as food in West Africa and Latin America, correspond to the Chiquita description, having long pointed fruit. They are described by Ploetz et al. as "true" plantains, distinct from other cooking bananas. The cooking bananas of East Africa belong to a different group, the East African Highland bananas, so would not qualify as "true" plantains on this definition.

An alternative approach divides bananas into dessert bananas and cooking bananas, with plantains being one of the subgroups of cooking bananas. Triploid cultivars derived solely from M. acuminata are examples of "dessert bananas", whereas triploid cultivars derived from the hybrid between M. acuminata and M. balbinosa (in particular the plantain subgroup of the AAB Group) are "plantains". Small farmers in Colombia grow a much wider range of cultivars than large commercial plantations. A study of these cultivars showed that they could be placed into at least three groups based on their characteristics: dessert bananas, non-plantain cooking bananas, and plantains, although there were overlaps between dessert and cooking bananas.

In Southeast Asia – the center of diversity for bananas, both wild and cultivated – the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" does not work, according to Valmayor et al. Many bananas are used both raw and cooked. There are starchy cooking bananas which are smaller than those eaten raw. The range of colors, sizes and shapes is far wider than in those grown or sold in Africa, Europe or the Americas.[35] Southeast Asian languages do not make the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" that is made in English (and Spanish). Thus both Cavendish cultivars, the classic yellow dessert bananas, and Saba cultivars, used mainly for cooking, are called pisang in Malaysia and Indonesia, kluai in Thailand and chuoi in Vietnam. Fe’i bananas, grown and eaten in the islands of the Pacific, are derived from entirely different wild species than traditional bananas and plantains. Most Fe’i bananas are cooked, but Karat bananas, which are short and squat with bright red skins, very different from the usual yellow dessert bananas, are eaten raw.

In summary, in commerce in Europe and the Americas (although not in small-scale cultivation), it is possible to distinguish between "bananas", which are eaten raw, and "plantains", which are cooked. In other regions of the world, particularly India, Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific, there are many more kinds of banana and the two-fold distinction is not useful and not made in local languages. Plantains are one of many kinds of cooking bananas, which are not always distinct from dessert bananas.

HISTORICAL CULTIVATION Farmers in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea first domesticated bananas. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence at Kuk Swamp in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 5000 BCE, and possibly to 8000 BCE. It is likely that other species were later and independently domesticated elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is the region of primary diversity of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation in the region.

Phytolith discoveries in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE triggered an as yet unresolved debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in Madagascar around that time. The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than late 6th century CE. It is likely, however, that bananas were brought at least to Madagascar if not to the East African coast during the phase of Malagasy colonization of the island from South East Asia c. 400 CE.

The banana may also have been present in isolated locations elsewhere in the Middle East on the eve of Islam. The spread of Islam was followed by far-reaching diffusion. There are numerous references to it in Islamic texts (such as poems and hadiths) beginning in the 9th century. By the 10th century the banana appears in texts from Palestine and Egypt. From there it diffused into North Africa and Muslim Iberia. During the medieval ages, bananas from Granada were considered among the best in the Arab world. In 650, Islamic conquerors brought the banana to Palestine. Today, banana consumption increases significantly in Islamic countries during Ramadan, the month of daylight fasting.

Bananas were certainly grown in the Christian Kingdom of Cyprus by the late medieval period. Writing in 1458, the Italian traveller and writer Gabriele Capodilista wrote favourably of the extensive farm produce of the estates at Episkopi, near modern day Limassol, including the region’s banana plantations.

Bananas were introduced to the Americas by Portuguese sailors who brought the fruits from West Africa in the 16th century.

Many wild banana species as well as cultivars exist in extraordinary diversity in New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines.

There are fuzzy bananas whose skins are bubblegum pink; green-and-white striped bananas with pulp the color of orange sherbet; bananas that, when cooked, taste like strawberries. The Double Mahoi plant can produce two bunches at once. The Chinese name of the aromatic Go San Heong banana means ‘You can smell it from the next mountain.’ The fingers on one banana plant grow fused; another produces bunches of a thousand fingers, each only an inch long. —Mike Peed, The New Yorker

In 1999 archaeologists in London discovered what they believed to be the oldest banana in the UK, in a Tudor rubbish tip.

PLANTATION CULTIVATION IN THE CARIBBEAN, CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists started banana plantations in the Atlantic Islands, Brazil, and western Africa. North Americans began consuming bananas on a small scale at very high prices shortly after the Civil War, though it was only in the 1880s that it became more widespread. As late as the Victorian Era, bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available. Jules Verne introduces bananas to his readers with detailed descriptions in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related Western Caribbean Zone, including most of Central America. It involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with the development of refrigeration that allowed bananas to have more time between harvesting and ripening. North America shippers like Lorenzo Dow Baker and Andrew Preston, the founders of the Boston Fruit Company started this process in the 1870s, but railroad builders like Minor C Keith also participated, eventually culminating in the multi-national giant corporations like today’s Chiquita Brands International and Dole. These companies were monopolistic, vertically integrated (meaning they controlled growing, processing, shipping and marketing) and usually used political manipulation to build enclave economies (economies that were internally self-sufficient, virtually tax exempt, and export oriented that contribute very little to the host economy). Their political maneuvers, which gave rise to the term Banana republic for states like Honduras and Guatemala, included working with local elites and their rivalries to influence politics or playing the international interests of the United States, especially during the Cold War, to keep the political climate favorable to their interests.

PEASANT CULTIVATION FOR EXPORT IN THE CARIBBEAN The vast majority of the world’s bananas today are cultivated for family consumption or for sale on local markets. India is the world leader in this sort of production, but many other Asian and African countries where climate and soil conditions allow cultivation also host large populations of banana growers who sell at least some of their crop.

There are peasant sector banana growers who produce for the world market in the Caribbean, however. The Windward Islands are notable for the growing, largely of Cavendish bananas, for an international market, generally in Europe but also in North America. In the Caribbean, and especially in Dominica where this sort of cultivation is widespread, holdings are in the 1–2 acre range. In many cases the farmer earns additional money from other crops, from engaging in labor outside the farm, and from a share of the earnings of relatives living overseas. This style of cultivation often was popular in the islands as bananas required little labor input and brought welcome extra income. Banana crops are vulnerable to destruction by high winds, such as tropical storms or cyclones.

After the signing of the NAFTA agreements in the 1990s, however, the tide turned against peasant producers. Their costs of production were relatively high and the ending of favorable tariff and other supports, especially in the European Economic Community, made it difficult for peasant producers to compete with the bananas grown on large plantations by the well capitalized firms like Chiquita and Dole. Not only did the large companies have access to cheap labor in the areas they worked, but they were better able to afford modern agronomic advances such as fertilization. The "dollar banana" produced by these concerns made the profit margins for peasant bananas unsustainable.

Caribbean countries have sought to redress this problem by providing government supported agronomic services and helping to organize producers’ cooperatives. They have also been supporters of the Fair Trade movement which seeks to balance the inequities in the world trade in commodities.

EAST AFRICA Most farms supply local consumption. Cooking bananas represent a major food source and a major income source for smallhold farmers. In east Africa, highland bananas are of greatest importance as a staple food crop. In countries such as Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda per capita consumption has been estimated at 45 kilograms per year, the highest in the world.

MODERN CULTIVATION All widely cultivated bananas today descend from the two wild bananas Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. While the original wild bananas contained large seeds, diploid or polyploid cultivars (some being hybrids) with tiny seeds are preferred for human raw fruit consumption. These are propagated asexually from offshoots. The plant is allowed to produce two shoots at a time; a larger one for immediate fruiting and a smaller "sucker" or "follower" to produce fruit in 6–8 months. The life of a banana plantation is 25 years or longer, during which time the individual stools or planting sites may move slightly from their original positions as lateral rhizome formation dictates.

Cultivated bananas are parthenocarpic, i.e. the flesh of the fruit swells and ripens without its seeds being fertilized and developing. Lacking viable seeds, propagation typically involves farmers removing and transplanting part of the underground stem (called a corm). Usually this is done by carefully removing a sucker (a vertical shoot that develops from the base of the banana pseudostem) with some roots intact. However, small sympodial corms, representing not yet elongated suckers, are easier to transplant and can be left out of the ground for up to two weeks; they require minimal care and can be shipped in bulk.It is not necessary to include the corm or root structure to propagate bananas; severed suckers without root material can be propagated in damp sand, although this takes somewhat longer.In some countries, commercial propagation occurs by means of tissue culture. This method is preferred since it ensures disease-free planting material. When using vegetative parts such as suckers for propagation, there is a risk of transmitting diseases (especially the devastating Panama disease).As a non-seasonal crop, bananas are available fresh year-round.

CAVENDISH In global commerce in 2009, by far the most important cultivars belonged to the triploid AAA group of Musa acuminata, commonly referred to as Cavendish group bananas. They accounted for the majority of banana exports, despite only coming into existence in 1836. The cultivars Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain (Chiquita Banana) gained popularity in the 1950s after the previous mass-produced cultivar, Gros Michel (also an AAA group cultivar), became commercially unviable due to Panama disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum which attacks the roots of the banana plant. Cavendish cultivars are resistant to the Panama Disease but in 2013 there were fears that the Black Sigatoka fungus would in turn make Cavendish bananas unviable.

Ease of transport and shelf life rather than superior taste make the Dwarf Cavendish the main export banana.

Even though it is no longer viable for large scale cultivation, Gros Michel is not extinct and is still grown in areas where Panama disease is not found. Likewise, Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain are in no danger of extinction, but they may leave supermarket shelves if disease makes it impossible to supply the global market. It is unclear if any existing cultivar can replace Cavendish bananas, so various hybridisation and genetic engineering programs are attempting to create a disease-resistant, mass-market banana.

RIPENING Export bananas are picked green, and ripen in special rooms upon arrival in the destination country. These rooms are air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. The vivid yellow color consumers normally associate with supermarket bananas is, in fact, caused by the artificial ripening process. Flavor and texture are also affected by ripening temperature. Bananas are refrigerated to between 13.5 and 15 °C during transport. At lower temperatures, ripening permanently stalls, and the bananas turn gray as cell walls break down. The skin of ripe bananas quickly blackens in the 4 °C environment of a domestic refrigerator, although the fruit inside remains unaffected.

"Tree-ripened" Cavendish bananas have a greenish-yellow appearance which changes to a brownish-yellow as they ripen further. Although both flavor and texture of tree-ripened bananas is generally regarded as superior to any type of green-picked fruit, this reduces shelf life to only 7–10 days.Bananas can be ordered by the retailer "ungassed" (i.e. not treated with ethylene), and may show up at the supermarket fully green. Guineos verdes (green bananas) that have not been gassed will never fully ripen before becoming rotten. Instead of fresh eating, these bananas are best suited to cooking, as seen in Mexican culinary dishes.A 2008 study reported that ripe bananas fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light. This property is attributed to the degradation of chlorophyll leading to the accumulation of a fluorescent product in the skin of the fruit. The chlorophyll breakdown product is stabilized by a propionate ester group. Banana-plant leaves also fluoresce in the same way. Green bananas do not fluoresce. The study suggested that this allows animals which can see light in the ultraviolet spectrum (tetrachromats and pentachromats) to more easily detect ripened bananas.

STORAGE & TRANSPORT Bananas must be transported over long distances from the tropics to world markets. To obtain maximum shelf life, harvest comes before the fruit is mature. The fruit requires careful handling, rapid transport to ports, cooling, and refrigerated shipping. The goal is to prevent the bananas from producing their natural ripening agent, ethylene. This technology allows storage and transport for 3–4 weeks at 13 °C. On arrival, bananas are held at about 17 °C and treated with a low concentration of ethylene. After a few days, the fruit begins to ripen and is distributed for final sale. Unripe bananas can not be held in home refrigerators because they suffer from the cold. Ripe bananas can be held for a few days at home. If bananas are too green, they can be put in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight to speed up the ripening process.

Carbon dioxide (which bananas produce) and ethylene absorbents extend fruit life even at high temperatures. This effect can be exploited by packing banana in a polyethylene bag and including an ethylene absorbent, e.g., potassium permanganate, on an inert carrier. The bag is then sealed with a band or string. This treatment has been shown to more than double lifespans up to 3–4 weeks without the need for refrigeration.

FRUIT Bananas are a staple starch for many tropical populations. Depending upon cultivar and ripeness, the flesh can vary in taste from starchy to sweet, and texture from firm to mushy. Both the skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked. The primary component of the aroma of fresh bananas is isoamyl acetate (also known as banana oil), which, along with several other compounds such as butyl acetate and isobutyl acetate, is a significant contributor to banana flavor.

During the ripening process, bananas produce the gas ethylene, which acts as a plant hormone and indirectly affects the flavor. Among other things, ethylene stimulates the formation of amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar, influencing the taste of bananas. The greener, less ripe bananas contain higher levels of starch and, consequently, have a "starchier" taste. On the other hand, yellow bananas taste sweeter due to higher sugar concentrations. Furthermore, ethylene signals the production of pectinase, an enzyme which breaks down the pectin between the cells of the banana, causing the banana to soften as it ripens.

Bananas are eaten deep fried, baked in their skin in a split bamboo, or steamed in glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Bananas can be made into jam. Banana pancakes are popular amongst backpackers and other travelers in South Asia and Southeast Asia. This has elicited the expression Banana Pancake Trail for those places in Asia that cater to this group of travelers. Banana chips are a snack produced from sliced dehydrated or fried banana or plantain, which have a dark brown color and an intense banana taste. Dried bananas are also ground to make banana flour. Extracting juice is difficult, because when a banana is compressed, it simply turns to pulp. Bananas feature prominently in Philippine cuisine, being part of traditional dishes and desserts like maruya, turrón, and halo-halo or saba con yelo. Most of these dishes use the Saba or Cardaba banana cultivar. Bananas are also commonly used in cuisine in the South-Indian state of Kerala, where they are steamed (puzhungiyathu), made into curries, fried into chips (upperi) or fried in batter (pazhampori). Pisang goreng, bananas fried with batter similar to the Filipino maruya or Kerala pazhampori, is a popular dessert in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. A similar dish is known in the United Kingdom and United States as banana fritters.

Plantains are used in various stews and curries or cooked, baked or mashed in much the same way as potatoes, such as the Pazham Pachadi prepared in Kerala.

Seeded bananas (Musa balbisiana), one of the forerunners of the common domesticated banana, are sold in markets in Indonesia.

FLOWER Banana hearts are used as a vegetable in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, either raw or steamed with dips or cooked in soups, curries and fried foods. The flavor resembles that of artichoke. As with artichokes, both the fleshy part of the bracts and the heart are edible.

LEAVES Banana leaves are large, flexible, and waterproof. They are often used as ecologically friendly disposable food containers or as "plates" in South Asia and several Southeast Asian countries. In Indonesian cuisine, banana leaf is employed in cooking method called pepes and botok; the banana leaf packages containing food ingredients and spices are cooked on steam, in boiled water or grilled on charcoal. In the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in every occasion the food must be served in a banana leaf and as a part of the food a banana is served. Steamed with dishes they impart a subtle sweet flavor. They often serve as a wrapping for grilling food. The leaves contain the juices, protect food from burning and add a subtle flavor. In Tamil Nadu (India) leaves are fully dried and used as packing material for food stuffs and also making cups to hold liquid foods. In Central American countries, banana leaves are often used as wrappers for tamales.

TRUNK The tender core of the banana plant’s trunk is also used in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, and notably in the Burmese dish mohinga.

FIBER TEXTILES The banana plant has long been a source of fiber for high quality textiles. In Japan, banana cultivation for clothing and household use dates back to at least the 13th century. In the Japanese system, leaves and shoots are cut from the plant periodically to ensure softness. Harvested shoots are first boiled in lye to prepare fibers for yarn-making. These banana shoots produce fibers of varying degrees of softness, yielding yarns and textiles with differing qualities for specific uses. For example, the outermost fibers of the shoots are the coarsest, and are suitable for tablecloths, while the softest innermost fibers are desirable for kimono and kamishimo. This traditional Japanese cloth-making process requires many steps, all performed by hand.

In a Nepalese system the trunk is harvested instead, and small pieces are subjected to a softening process, mechanical fiber extraction, bleaching and drying. After that, the fibers are sent to the Kathmandu Valley for use in rugs with a silk-like texture. These banana fiber rugs are woven by traditional Nepalese hand-knotting methods, and are sold RugMark certified.

In South Indian state of Tamil Nadu after harvesting for fruit the trunk (outer layer of the shoot) is made into fine thread used in making of flower garlands instead of thread.

PAPER Banana fiber is used in the production of banana paper. Banana paper is made from two different parts: the bark of the banana plant, mainly used for artistic purposes, or from the fibers of the stem and non-usable fruits. The paper is either hand-made or by industrial process.

Posted by asienman on 2014-06-11 20:33:34

Tagged: , India , Karnataka , Hampi , Vijayanagara , asienman-photography , Banana Plant , Banana Flower

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India – Karnataka – Mysore – Devaraja Market – Bananas – 121