Plant

Pineapple

Ananas comosus

Also known as: Ananas comosus

A perennial bromeliad native to South America — domesticated by the Tupi-Guaraní peoples of present-day Paraguay and Brazil at least 1,500 years ago. The fruit is a multiple — a single 'pineapple' is actually 100+ small fruits fused around a central core. Encountered by Columbus on Guadeloupe in 1493 and rapidly carried by Portuguese ships to West Africa, India, and Asia, where the species naturalized within a century. The bromeliad family otherwise consists mostly of epiphytic ornamentals — the pineapple is the family's one major food crop.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons — see source for license.

Scientific

Ananas comosus is in the bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae) — a family whose other prominent members include [[spanish-moss|Spanish moss]] and the spiky epiphytes that grow on tropical trees. The pineapple is the only major economic fruit in the family.

The fruit is a syncarp — a fusion of dozens of small fruits arranged around a central axis. Each “diamond” pattern on the surface marks one of those tiny constituent fruits.

The plant produces bromelain — a protease enzyme that breaks down protein. This is why eating fresh pineapple makes the mouth tingle (it’s literally beginning to digest the proteins lining your mouth) and why pineapple destroys gelatin (preventing pineapple jello from setting unless the fruit is cooked first to denature the enzyme).

Cultural and historical

Domesticated by the Tupi-Guaraní in the Paraguayan / Brazilian lowlands; carried by trade and migration across the Amazon and into the Caribbean before Columbian contact. Columbus encountered the fruit on his second voyage in 1493. Within a century pineapples had been planted in Portuguese trading stations from [[cape-cod|the Cape]] Verde Islands to West Africa to Goa to Macau. The 16th-century global pineapple diffusion is one of the fastest plant introductions in history.

In 18th-century Europe the pineapple became a status symbol — a single fruit could cost the equivalent of thousands of modern dollars. Pineapple imagery on architectural finials, furniture, and stoneware reflects this aspirational status.

Global production

Top producers: Philippines, Costa Rica, Brazil, Indonesia, India.

Sources

FAO Crop Statistics
Wikipedia — Pineapple

A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].

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Practical

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General

shares approach with

Hibiscus auto-linked via shared tag: tropical
Mango auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Papaya auto-linked via shared tag: columbian-exchange
Passion fruit auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Soursop auto-linked via shared tag: columbian-exchange

22 inbound links · 7 outbound

Scientific

Cultural and historical

Global production

See also

Sources

What links here, and how