Why do banana plants die after making fruit once?

A banana plant looks like a tree, but it is not a true tree. It is a giant herb, and what seems like a trunk is mostly tightly packed leaf bases. Each banana plant is built to do one big task: make one flower stalk and one bunch of bananas.

Bananas are giant herbs, not trees

The “trunk” is a bundle of leaf bases, which is why it is softer than wood.

After that, the main stem is done. Banana plants are what botanists call monocarpic, which means a single stem flowers once, fruits once, and then stops. Producing a big bunch takes a lot of energy. Once the fruit forms and is harvested, the stem has no reason to keep growing. It gradually withers and dies back.

Each stem fruits only once

One stem makes one flower stalk and one bunch, then it dies back.

But the banana plant does not really disappear. Under the ground is a thick base called a corm. From this base, new shoots called suckers keep growing. Farmers usually select one strong sucker to become the next fruiting plant. So while one stem dies, the banana patch continues like a relay race, with new stems taking over.

The next plant is already waiting

Suckers growing from the underground corm become the next fruiting stems.

That is why a banana grove can keep producing year after year even though each individual fruiting stem finishes after one harvest.