A few local supermarket chains here sell red bananas. I tried them a few times[1], but the taste difference was not dramatic or worth the additional price.

I'm an American, so not all of us are clueless :)

I'd wager that most of Western Society doesn't know other varieties exist (not just Americans) because most varieties not easy to transport long distances.

[1] Reading http://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/045... and listening to an NPR interview with the author prompted me to go on a search for banana varieties.

We actually already lost a variety of bananas back in the 50s due to Panama Disease and it never recovered. The kind we eat now are reported to be less flavorful yet were resistant to the disease up until recently. There's plenty of other varieties of bananas, but the ones sold in most groceries (with the exception of a few exotics like red bananas) are all the same because they're durable and easy to grow/ship compared to others.

Also chestnuts have yet to make a real comeback since being nearly wiped out in North America[1]. Although it's not a plant, people used to eat passenger pigeons quite a bit in the 19th century and science has yet to bring those back.

Edit: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World[2], is a great book on the history of the banana for anyone interested. Delves into the good and the bad of the banana and also how it shaped American Foreign Policy and Central/South America.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/045...

This book (pop science kind of thing) was a lot of fun too: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594630380

Note that the Gros Michel isn't extinct. It's still grown as a boutique item. But the blight is apparently persistent in fields, and thus it can't be grown in quanitity without huge risk to the plantation.