Wakehurst and bananas

Sunday 11th October 2020

Today we went to Wakehurst in Sussex. We thought that the combination of a sunny day and the late autumn tree colours would mean it was a good day to go - and we were so right - it was amazing. We havent been for many years and spent a lovely few hours walking round the grounds - eating our picnic with our thermos of tea (how old are we now!) and wondered why we had stayed away for so long. What an amazing place - definitely recommend that you visit.

I also managed to suprise Robin with my knowledge of some of our native trees and plants - shows that I am learning something at university!

We also went into the Millennium Seed Bank - they had a good exhibition showing what they do and how they do it.

Did you know that on average each person in the UK eats 100 bananas a year? Robin and I tried to work out how many we ate - much less than that - so there must be a lot of people who eat a banana day! Anyway the point of that is that the whole world mostly eats only one type of banana - the Cavendish. Up until the 1960s we all ate the Gros Michel but a fungus wiped it out and the Cavendish (more resistant to the fungus) was accepted as a replacement. Now there is a new fungus that impacts the Cavendish - there is a possibility over the next few decades that it will be wiped out as well. 100 billion Cavendish bananas are consumed worldwide every year - every single one of them genetically the same. After 15000 years of human cultivation the banana is too perfect, lacking the genetic diversity that is key to any species health.