Wooden Banana Tree – Small Hand-Painted Tropical Tree Toy

How Bananas Grow

Bananas do not hang one by one. They grow in rows called hands, and the hands together form a heavy bunch that hangs from the top of the plant. Before the fruit appears, the plant grows a large purple flower bud known as the banana heart.

Today bananas are grown in about 135 countries, and India and China produce more than anyone else. People use far more than the fruit: fibres from the stem have long been twisted into rope and woven into mats.

Also available as a Large Banana Tree. Build a tropical corner with the Small Palm Tree and Small Acacia Tree.

Height × Width × Depth: 23.5 × 14.0 × 1.8 cm (9.3 × 5.5 × 0.7 in)

All pieces are shaped from solid ash wood and hand-sanded to a smooth finish with no sharp edges. The crown and trunk are hand-painted with water-based paints, the base keeps the natural grain of the ash, and every piece is finished with olive oil, which protects the wood against moisture. No plastics, no solvent-based finishes, no MDF, no veneers. Made in conformity with the European toy safety standard EN 71. Small variations in colour and grain are a natural part of handmade production, not defects.

A taste of the tropics for the play table.

Bananas are one of the first fruits many children know, which makes the banana tree a natural bridge between the kitchen and the wider world. It invites questions – where do bananas grow, how do they hang, why is the plant so green and the leaves so big – and gives a jungle or market scene its centre.

Inspired by Montessori and Waldorf principles, the tree is simple in form and real in its details, with no batteries, sounds or buttons. Children decide whether it shades a monkey, marks a village or stands at the edge of a river.

Solid ash is dense and hard-wearing, and every tree is sanded and painted by hand in our workshop in Romania. Tree by tree, the forest grows with the child and lasts long enough to be passed on.