Purple Banana Tree
Purple banana trees are a tree species found in the Unuth Red Desert on Osao. They are one of the only large fruit-growing trees in the Unuth Red Desert, and are harvested by the desert slimes in the area.
Anatomy
Purple banana trees are a large herbaceous plant. They have thick green stems with purple bark-like scales. The top of the tree sprouts into twelve to fifteen large leaves, roughly a metre in length and 20cm in diameter. At the base of the leaves at the top of the plant grow purple bananas.Purple Bananas
Purple bananas are a common fruit species that grow on these plants, hence the name. Purple bananas grow in large bunches of up to twenty, with about five bunches per banana tree. Their purplish colour comes from a large amount of manganese violet, or ammonium manganese(III) pyrophosphate, in the peel/skin, while the actual fruit inside is a whitish-yellow colour.
The peel is very toxic to slimes, which is why the manufacturing process of banana peeling for food production is manual, as if even the smallest amount of peel is consumed, it can be fatal.
Harvesting
Luckily, the banana peel is not toxic to the touch. Purple bananas are harvested by slimes using a ramming technique. The trees are too tall for desert slimes to reach from the ground, so instead they will use a padded shield and run straight into the tree, with the hopes of the bananas falling off on to the sand.
Geographic Distribution
You know, carrots used to be purple in most of Europe before the introduction of the orange carrots by the Romans.