Bananas
The cheerful yellow peel, gentle curve, and soft interior of a banana make it one of the most recognizable fruits on the planet. And millions of people around the world savor it as a convenient snack, a versatile cooking ingredient, a creamy boost in smoothies, or a satisfying dessert.
But the banana isn’t the only fruit with the classic banana look—elongated shape, smooth skin, and sunny exterior hue. There are several other fruits that share these features and, though they differ in taste, texture, or use, they can still easily be mistaken for bananas.
Let’s explore these banana doppelgängers and discover how each one visually echoes this world beloved fruit:
1. Plantains
At first glance, plantains could easily be mistaken for bananas. They’re longer and thicker, but the overall shape is identical to bananas. In fact, they belong to the same genus (Musa), and it’s only their starchier composition that sets them apart. Like bananas, they grow in large hanging bunches and share that same curved silhouette.
2. Musa Velutina (Pink Banana)
This ornamental banana species is a showstopper. Its fruits are much smaller than common bananas, but they have a similar shape and overall look to bananas. The only difference is their pink color and the fact that they are fuzzy unlike typical bananas. They are also edible like typical bananas, but their seeds are harder and more numerous.
3. Enset (False Banana)
Native to Ethiopia, Enset looks very much like a traditional banana plant, and it even produces banana-shaped fruit. However, these fruits are typically inedible. It’s the starchy pseudostem and underground corm that locals use as a food source. The fruits themselves, though rarely consumed, bear a strong visual resemblance to green bananas in both shape and arrangement.
4. Banana Yucca Fruit
The fruit of the banana yucca plant also closely resembles a banana. Its thick, green pods hang like squat bananas and have a similar tapering at both ends. They don’t peel easily like bananas though, but their size and shape could trick a casual observer into thinking they’re a wild, rugged cousins of the banana.
5.Banana Passionfruit
With its long, slightly curved body and soft, yellowish peel, this passionfruit is named “banana” for a reason. It’s slimmer than a banana, but its shape and overall appearance are very similar to a banana, especially once you see it hanging from its vine. However, its interior is quite different from a banana, as shown in the picture above. It contains bright orange pulp and large, edible seeds, typical of passionfruit rather than a banana.
6. Cassabanana
Another fruit that looks like a banana, especially from its exterior is Cassabanana. Cassabananas can grow up to two feet long and come in colors ranging from deep purple to yellow-orange. Their long, cylindrical form—with a gentle curve and smooth skin—definitely evokes the banana shape. Despite being a type of gourd, they smell sweet and fruity, which only deepens the banana illusion.
7. Babaco
Also referred to as “mountain papaya,” the Babaco has an elongated, five-sided shape that looks like a cross between a banana and a starfruit. Its pale green-to-yellow skin and uniform body make it easy to mistake for a banana. But its interior is quite different from a banana—it is seedless, with juicy flesh that has a pleasantly tangy flavor.
Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7