I have seen banana trees a few times during my Africa travels, but I had yet to fully understand the plant and its banana production.
My family here in Swaziland has a large grove with 30 trees or so. Bananas seem to grow year round and I have seen a few trees carrying fruit.
To collect the bananas, my family explained that you cut the tree down and then store the bananas until they are ripe.
Finally this last week I saw some bananas being birthed from the huge, maroon flower, and the bottom of each banana had a small flower, too.
New-born bananas
I am finally in-the-know!
travelin' the globe 
We lived in Swaziland a couple of years during the 80th. We didn’t have bananas I our garden but I remember buying small thick ones that was called Ladyfingers
They are definitely a different shape and size here!