After which British nobleman is the Cavendish banana named?

The Cavendish banana is named after William Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

Around 1834, Cavendish received banana plants from Mauritius. His head gardener and friend, Sir Joseph Paxton, cultivated them in the greenhouses at Chatsworth House, the Cavendish family estate. Paxton later described the plant botanically as Musa cavendishii, commemorating the duke.

William Cavendish was not the botanist who developed the plant, which explains why some answers confuse him with Joseph Paxton. Nor should he be confused with Thomas Cavendish, the Elizabethan explorer, or Henry Cavendish, the eighteenth-century chemist. The banana’s name honors the duke’s association with its cultivation and propagation.

The Cavendish group later became central to international banana trade. Its best-known commercial cultivars include Dwarf Cavendish and Grande Naine. From the mid-twentieth century onward, Cavendish bananas largely replaced Gros Michel after Panama disease severely damaged Gros Michel plantations.