Musa × paradisiaca is a species as well as a cultivar, originating as the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, cultivated and domesticated by humans very early. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are polyploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. Linnaeus originally used the name M. paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is thus a synonym of Musa × paradisiaca.

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