Madeira banana-pineapple?

October 18, 2011 5:54 PM

Exoticfruitfilter: Madeira banana-pineapple?

I stumbled across pictures of this fruit and I'm curious to know more about it - in particular, what is its scientific name and is it, as many of the people posting pictures claim, really a hybrid of banana and pineapple?

Bonus question: I found this because I was searching for something I've found referenced in a few places in Victorian literature, a "Madeira fruit" (example). Is this banana-pineapple the fruit being referred to by this term, and if it's not, what is meant by that?

posted by XMLicious to Food & Drink (3 answers total)

Best answer: I think in that example, what it's saying is that this new banana is going to be tastier than the Madeira banana. Which is a smaller banana. I think it's supposed to be sweeter. But not really a different kind of fruit.

The supposed banana-pineapple is a monstera, I'm 99% sure.
posted by gracedissolved at 6:01 PM on October 18, 2011

The fruit in the picture is indeed a Monstera. Used to be reasonably well known in Oz when I was a kid.
posted by Logophiliac at 9:35 PM on October 18, 2011

Response by poster: Ah, thanks! The name makes it much easier to find out about.

For the curious, here's what it looks like on the inside.
posted by XMLicious at 9:50 PM on October 18, 2011