Pineapple 
Home

A popular tropical fruit, the pineapple, Ananas comosus, of the Bromeliaceae family, originated in South America, perhaps in the Parana-Paraguay basin, and spread through much of the continent's lowlands and other tropical areas. After Amerindians domesticated the plant, the Spanish and Portuguese spread its cultivation throughout the tropics, aided by the fact that it is propagated readily from parts of the fruit. Columbus was offered pineapple on Guadeloupe in 1493. Early introductions by the Caribs probably produced the West Indian plants.

Like many plants brought from the New World, pineapple became a greenhouse curiosity in 18th-century England and France, and attempts were made to improve the basic stock. Using European cultivars, the imperial powers established pineapple plantations in their tropical colonies. In 1896 improved English plants were introduced from Australia to Hawaii, where they have grown very successfully ever since. China is the world's largest pineapple producer, followed by the United States, Thailand, Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico, Zaire, the Ivory Coast, and Malaysia.

Pineapple is a rosette plant with fleshy, overlapping leaves, sometimes with spiny margins, and an extensive root system. The leaves store water absorbed by specialized hairs on their clasping bases. The fruit, which is crowned by a cluster of leaves, is sweet and succulent when ripe. Most pineapple types produce seedless fruit that requires pollen from other plants to form seed. Varieties can be interbred, and intercrosses with Ananas bracteatus, a Brazilian pineapple, and with wild species produce fertile hybrids. Few pineapple cultivars are grown. The derivatives of "Cayenne," originating in Venezuela and improved in Europe, are the basis of most commercial crops.

Three or four years after the seed-grown plant germinates, it forms a fruit at the top. When the fruit is cut off, smaller fruits grow on lower branches. Further cutting produces another crop of yet smaller fruits; these are usually used for juice, crushing, or dicing. New seed must be sown after this "last" crop. Vegetative propagation from the fruit-crown or from suckers yields two crops in three years.

Pineapples are sold fresh and canned. Most exports are canned. A broad cylinder of flesh is cut from the center of the fruit. It is cored and cut or sliced before it is pasteurized and canned in sweetened pineapple juice. Fleshy remnants are crushed or made into juice. In Taiwan and the Philippines, the strong leaf fibers of some varieties are made into cordage and cloth.

(402 words, 2184 characters)


Back
Home