Most cultivated bananas and plantains are polyploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone.

When the cultivated plants spread north-west into areas where M.balbisiana was native (see map), hybrids between the two species occurred and were then developed further into a wide range of cultivars.

The above-ground part of the plant is a "false stem" or pseudostem, consisting of leaves and their fused bases.

[1] In pre-Linnean times this banana was named 'Musa serapionis', for instance by Maria Sybilla Merian in her book, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, in 1705.

[6] At one time, to deal with the great diversity of cultivated bananas and plantains, botanists created many other names which are now regarded as synonyms of M. × paradisiaca, such as M. corniculata Lour.,[5] used for a group of plantains with large fruit resembling the horns of a bull.