![]() ![]() The pineapple comprises five botanical varieties, formerly regarded as separate species: ImageĪnanas comosus var. The pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate, then releasing it during the day aiding photosynthesis. The fruit of a pineapple is usually arranged in two interlocking helices, often with 8 in one direction and 13 in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. The ovaries develop into berries, which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple fruit. In Hawaii, where pineapples were cultivated and canned industrially throughout the 20th century, importation of hummingbirds was prohibited. Under cultivation, because seed development diminishes fruit quality, pollination is performed by hand, and seeds are retained only for breeding. ![]() Certain wild pineapples are foraged and pollinated at night by bats. In the wild, pineapples are pollinated primarily by hummingbirds. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm (6 in) long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. In the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. It has 30 or more narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves that are 30 to 100 cm (1 to 3 + 1⁄ 2 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem the leaves have sharp spines along the margins. Commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. These suckers may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots (called 'suckers' by commercial growers) are produced in the leaf axils of the main stem. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers join together to create a multiple fruit. When creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. The plant has a short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves. The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall on average, although sometimes it can be taller. Purchas, writing in English in 1613, referred to the fruit as Ananas, but the Oxford English Dictionary's first record of the word pineapple itself by an English writer is by Mandeville in 1714. This usage was adopted by many European languages and led to the plant's scientific binomial Ananas comosus, where comosus 'tufted', refers to the stem of the plant. ![]() Later in the same English translation, he describes the same fruit as a "Nana made in the manner of a Pine apple", where he used another Tupi word nanas, meaning 'excellent fruit'. The first reference in English to the pineapple fruit was the 1568 translation from the French of André Thevet's The New Found World, or Antarctike where he refers to a Hoyriri, a fruit cultivated and eaten by the Tupinambá people, living near modern Rio de Janeiro, and now believed to be a pineapple. The plant normally propagates from the offset produced at the top of the fruit or from a side shoot, and typically matures within a year. Pineapples grow as a small shrub the individual flowers of the unpollinated plant fuse to form a multiple fruit. Since the 1820s, pineapple has been commercially grown in greenhouses and many tropical plantations. The introduction of the pineapple to Europe in the 17th century made it a significant cultural icon of luxury. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuries. The pineapple ( Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant with an edible fruit it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae.
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