BANANA PLANTATION PUERTO DE LA CRUZ TENERIFE

 Bananera EI Guanche is a popular family attraction devoted to the subject of the banana a truly unusual plant. Bananas are a staple of the island economy though the majority is taken by Spain.

Both entertaining and informative, Bananera is set in an old banana farm (bananera means banana plantation). A video (every 20 min.) explains the method of banana cultivation, an extraordinarily complicated and arduous process. The banana, you are informed, is not a tree, but a plant, and takes 16-19 months before it produces its first 'hand' of bananas. One of its many peculiarities is that each plant is both male and female, and reproduces without pollination.

Visitors then stroll along a route that takes them through various kinds of banana plants, as well as many other intriguing species. You'll see varieties as diverse as papaya, mango, the huge and ancient drago (or dragon tree) species, sugar cane, cotton, coffee, cocoa, peanuts, pineapples and more. Less familiar names include kapok and chirimoya (custard apples). The cactus garden has hundreds of cacti, while in the Tropical Plantation there is a wide range of fruit trees as well as datura, tobacco and chicle the South American tree from whose milky resin chewing gum is derived. There are exotic flowers too, including elegant, vivid strelitzia, or bird of paradise flowers, which have become a symbol of the Canary Islands. Boxed strelitzia flowers are a popular souvenir for Bananera visitors; they can be delivered to your hotel on the day of your flight home.

Finally, before leaving, you're offered a free taste of banana liqueur (powerful and sweet) and a ripe banana. Many interesting fruit and flower specimens and souvenirs can be bought in the shop, carefully prepared and packed for the flight home. The first examples of the banana were brought here some five centuries ago from Indo China, and continued their journey to the newly discovered West Indies. In 1855 a small variety known as the Dwarf Cavendish or the Chinese banana was introduced, which became especially associated with the Canary Islands.