Here’s everyone’s essential guide to identifying banana and plantain varieties and their practical backyard cultivation, well illustrated and exhaustively researched ... a thoroughly fascinating treatment of every aspect of banana culture, from its role in early human migration to its disease-threatened future. From the mythological and historic origins of Hawaiian and Pacific bananas to today’s warfare in the laboratories against ever-evolving pathogens, this is the full story of our interdependence with a most useful plant providing nutrition as well as cloth, cordage, varnish and medicine ... rich, very entertaining writing brightened with stories and cultural sayings revealing humanity’s deep connection to this plant ally. David Orr, Collections Manager, Waimea Valley Arboretum, Hawai‘i