Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.

Cultivated. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, S Yunnan [native to South America].

Pineapple plants probably originated in the Paraná-Paraguay river drainages.In 1980, Leal et al. suggested that the centre of origin is an area located between 10° N to 10° S and 55° to 75° W, because the flora of this region is endemic and a large number of economically important species are found there.The first European to see and taste the pineapple was Christopher Columbus, on Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico, during his second voyage in 1493. It was not until 1719 that pineapples were successfully established in England, in greenhouses.The Spanish took it to the Philippines, Hawaii, Zimbabwe, and Guam during the early 16th century, and reached India and the east and west coasts of Africa by 1548.Even though it wasn’t introduced to Hawaii until 1813, by 1892 it became a major export out of these islands.Southeast Asia still dominates the world production of pineapple.

Persistence: ANNUAL, Short-lived

The Paraná-Paraguay river drainage basin is thought to be the region where the pineapple originated. It was also the home of the Tupi-Guaraní Indian tribe.In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus has the following etymology:

• Ananas comes from the Tupi word nanas, meaning ‘excellent fruit’, as recorded by André Thevet in 1555
• comosus means tufted, and refers to the stem of the fruit

The pineapple is a perennial monocotyledonous plant with terminal inflorescence and fruit.The hermaphrodite flowers are trimerous, they have:

• 3 sepals
• 3 petals
• 6 stamens
• 1 tricarpellary pistil with an inferior ovary

The placenta and ovules are located in 3 deep cavities called locules.Flowers are normally self sterile and fruit development is parthenocarpic (meaning fruit is produced without fertilisation of ovules, leading to sterile, seedless fruit).The fruit consists of up to 200 berry-like fruitlets which are fused together on a central axis that is the continuation of the fibrous peduncle.Most of the floral tissue and the tissue of the central cylinder turns fleshy and becomes edible. As soon as this process is complete, it is no longer possible to distinguish between different types of tissue. The outside surface of each individual fruitlet forms the ‘eyes’ of the pineapple.