<P> 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 . 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

Where did the first banana tree come from