What is a Pineapple?
A: The pineapple is a tropical plant with an edible fruit.
It is the most economically significant plant in what
family?
A: Bromeliaceae.
The pineapple is indigenous to where?
A: South America.
How long has it been cultivated for in South America?
A: For many centuries.
The introduction of the pineapple to Europe in the 17th
century made it what?
A: A significant cultural icon of luxury.
Since the 1820s, pineapple has been commercially grown
in what?
A: Greenhouses and many tropical plantations.
Pineapples grow as a small shrub; the individual
flowers of the unpollinated plant fuse to form what?
A: a multiple fruit.
The plant is normally propagated from the offset
produced where?
A: At the top of the fruit, or from a side shoot, and typically mature
within a year.
The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to
how tall?
A: 1.0 to 1.5 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 11 in), although sometimes it can be
taller.
The plant has a short, stocky what?
A: Stem with tough, waxy leaves.
When creating its fruit, it usually produces up to how
many flowers?
A: 200, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this.
Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers
do what?
A: Join together to create a multiple fruit.
After the first fruit is produced, side shoots (called
'suckers' by commercial growers) are produced where?
A: In the leaf axils of the main stem.
These suckers may be removed for what?
A: Propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant.
It has 30 or more narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped what?
A: Leaves that are 30 to 100 cm (1 to 3+1⁄2 ft) long.
In the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and
thickens, bearing numerous what?
A: Leaves in close spirals.
After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into what?
A: A spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm (6 in) long with over 100 spirally
arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract.
The ovaries develop into berries, which do what?
A: They coalesce into a large, compact, multiple fruit.
The fruit of a pineapple is usually arranged in two
what?
A: Two interlocking helices, often with 8 in one direction and 13 in the
other, each being a Fibonacci number.
In the wild, pineapples are pollinated primarily by
what?
A: Hummingbirds.
Certain wild pineapples are foraged and pollinated at
night by what?
A: Bats.
Under cultivation, because seed development diminishes
fruit quality, pollination is performed how?
A: By hand, and seeds are retained only for breeding.
In Hawaii, where pineapples were cultivated and canned
industrially throughout the 20th century, importation of “what” was
prohibited?
A: Hummingbirds.
The wild plant originates from where?
A: The Paraná–Paraguay River drainages between southern
Brazil and Paraguay.
Archaeological evidence of use is found as far back as
when?
A: 1200 - 800 BC. in Peru and 200BC - AD700 in
Mexico.
Who cultivated it?
A: It was cultivated by the Mayas and the Aztecs.
By the late 1400s, cropped pineapple was widely
distributed and a staple
food of whom?
A: Native Americans.
Who was the first European to encounter the pineapple?
A: It was Columbus, in Guadeloupe on 4 November 1493.
