A wild vegetable sold by the roadside looks like white sticks; not many people have eaten it, but it is highly nutritious and can also stop bleeding.

On the road I met a person selling a kind of white vegetable. It looked like white sticks, of varying lengths, neatly placed on banana leaves. Only after asking did I learn that this is wild banana heart, an edible wild vegetable.

Actually, the banana plant is quite common in rural areas of the south. I remember that when I was little, a large banana tree grew at the gate of my second grandmother's house. It bore many bananas, in clusters just like bananas. Although they tasted very astringent, as a greedy child I did eat them several times. What I am talking about today is the heart of this kind of banana tree, which is also edible and even more delicious than the banana.

Everyone knows the banana plant. It can grow into a large tree 2.5-4 m tall, with broad leaves. The leaves are oblong, 2-3 m long and about 30 cm wide, and it stays green all year round. Its stem is generally wrapped in layer after layer of skin. After cutting down the banana plant, peel off the old outer parts, and the tenderest part in the middle of the stem is the banana heart. After being cut short, it looks like white sticks.

The preparation of banana heart is fairly simple. First boil it until soft and mushy, then mix it with salt and chili and eat it, or stir-fry it. But in all cases it must be boiled first before stir-frying. Banana heart is rich in nutrients. Its taste is sweet and its nature is cool, and it has effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, promoting urination and reducing swelling. In the past, banana heart was also chopped up and applied to treat external injuries, with a certain hemostatic effect.

The heart of the banana plants we see is not necessarily edible. What is mainly edible is the heart of the wild banana. Wild banana is a perennial herbaceous plant. It likes warmth, has strong stem branching ability, tolerates partial shade, has fairly strong adaptability, and grows relatively fast.

Nowadays there are also quite a few people cultivating banana plants, mainly for growing as fruit trees or as landscaping trees. Banana plants are very suitable for planting in places with fertile, loose soil and good aeration. They are also very shade-tolerant, and partial shade or scattered light is enough for them to grow well. If it is too shady, the plants grow poorly and find it hard to flower.

But banana plants are not cold-tolerant. In winter the temperature must be kept above 4°C, though they can also tolerate short periods of low temperature at 0°C. Banana plants also like moisture. During the growing period, water them more and spray the plants to maintain air humidity. In summer, with high temperatures and frequent rain, watering should be controlled and drainage should be paid attention to. Do not let the soil remain waterlogged, or the roots will rot.

Cultivated banana plants, unlike wild ones, are not left unfertilized. We can plant them in front of and behind the house, at the edges of fields and corners of plots, and other places. Before planting, be sure to apply enough base fertilizer, such as barnyard manure and compost. During their growing period, a fully decomposed organic fertilizer should also be applied once a month, which is even more helpful for improving quality.