Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Origin and evolution of edible bananas. 3. Taxonomic status. 4. Distribution of species and clones. 5. Exploration and germplasm collection. 6. Explorations conducted by NRCB. 7. Geographical configuration and vegetation types of explored areas. 8. General diversity for wild bananas in different agroecologies. 9. Status of diversity for the genus Musa: i. Diversity for the section Eumusa. ii. Diversity in the section Rhodochlamys. 10. Status of diversity in the genus Ensete. 11. Germplasm characterization: i. Morphotaxonomic characterization. ii. Molecular characterization. 12. References. 13. List of characterized accessions. 14. Characterization descriptor. 15. Data retrieval: i. Characterization data. ii. Frequency distribution for selected traits. iii. Accessions exhibiting unique traits.
