50 Fun Facts About Pineapple

On which continent is the pineapple plant native?

The pineapple is native to South America, specifically the Paraná–Paraguay river basins of southern Brazil and Paraguay, from where indigenous peoples spread it through the tropics.

What is the pineapple's scientific name?

Ananas comosus is the pineapple's binomial: 'Ananas' derives from an indigenous Brazilian word for the fruit, and comosus means 'tufted', for the leafy top.

Pineapples belong to which plant family?

It is by far the most economically important bromeliad; most of its relatives are ornamental air plants.

Which explorer was the first European to encounter a pineapple, on Guadeloupe?

Christopher Columbus's crew found pineapples on Guadeloupe in November 1493 during his second voyage; the fruit was named piña de Indias, 'pine of the Indies'.

Why did 17th-century English speakers apply 'pineapple', their word for a pine cone, to the fruit?

The fruit resembled a pine cone, which English had called a 'pine apple' since the 1300s; Captain John Smith used the word for the tropical fruit in 1624.

Botanically, what is a pineapple?

A pineapple is a multiple fruit of fused flowers: each 'eye' on the skin was a separate flower whose berry merged with its neighbours around the central stalk.

Roughly how many flowers does a pineapple plant produce to make one fruit?

A pineapple inflorescence carries up to 200 flowers, typically 100 to 200, spiralling around the stalk; each sets one 'eye' of the finished fruit.

In the wild, pineapples are mainly pollinated by what?

Hawaii banned importing hummingbirds to keep commercial fruit seedless; some wild plants are pollinated by bats at night.

A pineapple's spiral 'eyes' run in helices of 8 and 13, numbers from which famous series?

Sunflower seeds and pine cones show the same pattern.

Which unusual type of photosynthesis lets pineapples take in carbon dioxide at night?

CAM, crassulacean acid metabolism, lets pineapples open their stomata at night, storing carbon dioxide as malic acid and releasing it by day, a water-saving trick shared with cacti.

Which Dutch grower developed the hothouse method that let Europeans raise pineapples?

Pieter de la Court van der Voort, a Leiden cloth merchant, perfected pineapple hothouses in the late 1600s; plants spread from Dutch gardens to English gardeners in 1719 and French ones in 1730.

Which French king was presented with a pineapple grown at Versailles in 1733?

Louis XV, who reigned from 1715 to 1774, was presented with a pineapple grown in the Versailles hothouses in 1733, three years after Dutch plants reached French gardeners.

Why did pineapples become a symbol of wealth in 18th-century Europe?

Rich hosts often displayed a single pineapple at dinner after dinner until it rotted, without eating it.

In architecture, a carved pineapple traditionally symbolises what?

The pineapple became a symbol of hospitality because hosts who served the costly fruit honoured their guests; carved pineapples decorate gateposts, finials and door knockers as a legacy.

The Dunmore Pineapple, a hothouse topped by a 14-metre stone pineapple, is in which country?

The Dunmore Pineapple stands at Dunmore Park near Airth in Scotland; built in 1761 as a summerhouse over a hothouse, it hides its chimneys inside stone Grecian urns.

Which cultivar dominated world pineapple production through most of the 20th century?

Smooth Cayenne, first imported to France in 1820, was the world's dominant canning and fresh-fruit cultivar for most of the 20th century; its clones spread via the Pacific to Australia and Africa.

Which 'Pineapple King' arrived in Honolulu in 1899 and founded his namesake pineapple company?

James Dole, the 'Pineapple King', founded his pineapple company in 1901, two years after landing in Honolulu; he was a cousin of Sanford Dole, who had been president of the islands' republic.

Which entire Hawaiian island did the Pineapple King buy in 1922 to turn into a plantation?

The Pineapple King bought the island of Lanai in 1922 for about $1.1 million and turned much of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation, earning it the nickname 'Pineapple Island'.

What did Dole engineer Henry Ginaca invent in 1911 that transformed the canning industry?

James Dole had started commercial processing of the fruit; the Ginaca machine made canned rings possible at scale.

What is the rosette of stiff leaves on top of a pineapple called?

The crown is the rosette of stiff leaves topping the fruit; it grows from the apex of the flower spike after the flowers set and is trimmed off before canning.

Which Caribbean nation's coat of arms shows five golden pineapples on a red cross?

Jamaica's coat of arms, granted in 1661, bears a red cross charged with five golden pineapples, flanked by two Taíno figures with a crocodile on the crest.

What is the name of the pineapple enzyme that tenderises meat and stops gelatin from setting?

Bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme concentrated in the stem and fruit, breaks down meat proteins and gelatin; it is also why fresh pineapple makes your mouth tingle.

Raw pineapple is a rich source of vitamin C and which mineral?

A 100 g serving supplies about 40% of the daily value of manganese and 53% of vitamin C.

Roughly what percentage of raw pineapple flesh is water?

Raw pineapple flesh is about 86 percent water by weight; the rest is mostly carbohydrate, giving roughly 50 calories per 100 grams.

What happens to a pineapple's ripeness after it is picked?

It is a non-climacteric fruit; growers spray ethephon a week before harvest to turn the skin golden.

How can you grow a new pineapple at home from a shop-bought fruit?

Plant the leafy top: twist it off, strip the lower leaves, let it dry for a day or two and root it in soil; commercial growers instead plant side shoots called suckers and slips.

Roughly how long does a commercially grown pineapple take from planting to first harvest?

About 18 months, typically 14 to 20, pass between planting a slip or sucker and the first harvest; growers then take a smaller second crop from the ratoon shoots.

Where was Hawaiian pizza invented?

Sam Panopoulos created Hawaiian pizza in 1962 at his Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, Canada, naming it after the brand of canned pineapple he topped it with.

Which country's president joked in 2017 that he would ban pineapple on pizza if he could?

Iceland's president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson told high-school students in Akureyri in February 2017 that he would ban pineapple on pizza if he could; the remark went viral worldwide.

Pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum make which cocktail?

The piña colada, Spanish for 'strained pineapple', blends pineapple juice, coconut cream and white rum, shaken or blended with ice and garnished with a pineapple wedge or cherry.

Where was the coconut-and-pineapple cocktail declared the official drink in 1978?

Puerto Rico named the cocktail its official drink in 1978; San Juan's Caribe Hilton claims bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero invented it there in 1954.

What is tepache, a traditional Mexican drink?

Tepache is a lightly fermented pineapple beverage: the peel and core are steeped with piloncillo sugar and spices for a few days until fizzy and mildly alcoholic.

Which cartoon character lives in a pineapple under the sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants lives in a pineapple at 124 Conch Street in Bikini Bottom; marine-science educator Stephen Hillenburg created the Nickelodeon series in 1999.

Who stars alongside James Franco in the 2008 stoner comedy Pineapple Express?

Rogen co-wrote it with Evan Goldberg; Franco earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing the dealer.

Which country's traditional piña fabric is woven from pineapple-leaf fibres?

The Philippines weaves piña cloth from hand-scraped pineapple-leaf fibres; the sheer, lustrous fabric is used for the barong tagalog and was prized by European aristocrats in the 1700s and 1800s.

Which cultivar was originally grown in Southeast Asia for its leaf fibres rather than its fruit?

Red Spanish, a spiny cultivar carried across the Pacific by Spanish colonists, was grown in Southeast Asia for its long leaf fibres, which fed a luxury cloth trade until World War II.

Under what brand name did Del Monte launch the 'MD-2' pineapple in 1996?

Gold Extra Sweet was Del Monte's 1996 brand name for the MD-2 hybrid, a low-acid, golden-fleshed pineapple that took over US supermarket shelves within a decade and prompted a lawsuit against a rival grower.

Which US state grew the pineapples that dominated the world trade until the 1960s?

Hawaii dominated the world's canned-pineapple trade through the mid-20th century; cheaper Asian and Latin American growers overtook it from the 1960s and Hawaiian output dwindled to a small fraction of the world total.

Archaeological evidence of pineapple use in Mexico dates back to which era?

Evidence of pineapple use in Mexico dates to 200 BC to AD 700, long before the Aztecs; even older traces, from 1200 to 800 BC, have been found in Peru.

Which people did André Thevet see eating pineapples near Rio, giving the fruit its name 'nanas'?

The Tupinambá of the Rio de Janeiro coast ate 'nana' when French friar André Thevet described it in 1555; the 1568 English translation of his book is the fruit's first mention in English.

Which region supplied fresh pineapples to European markets in the late 19th century?

The Azores, where growers on São Miguel raised pineapples in glasshouses, supplied European markets in the late 19th century, while Florida and the Caribbean served North America.

What Hawaiian name, meaning 'foreign' plus the name of a native tree, was given to the pineapple?

Hala kahiki combines hala, the native pandanus tree whose fruit the pineapple resembles, with kahiki, 'foreign'; the islands' first commercial plantation was planted in 1886.

What is nata de piña, a traditional Philippine dessert?

It has been made since the 18th century by fermenting the juice with Komagataeibacter xylinus.

Which is the most serious affliction of pineapple plants, spread by mealybugs?

Wilt disease, known as mealybug wilt, is spread by mealybugs tended by ants and causes leaves to redden and collapse; pink disease, by contrast, only discolours the flesh when canned.

Which gin-based cocktail's classic recipe includes pineapple juice and cherry brandy?

The Singapore Sling, created at Raffles Hotel around 1915, combines gin, cherry brandy, Bénédictine, pineapple juice, lime, Cointreau, bitters and grenadine in the hotel's recipe.

A pineapple plant usually grows to about what height?

A pineapple plant grows 1 to 1.5 metres tall, a herbaceous perennial with 30 or more tough, trough-shaped leaves around a stocky stem that bears one fruit at a time.

Which seafaring nation took the pineapple from Brazil to India by 1550?

The Portuguese carried the pineapple from Brazil to their Indian colonies by 1550, and it spread across tropical Asia by the end of the 16th century.

Costa Rican pineapple exports to Europe are notorious as a cover for what?

Drug trafficking: cocaine has repeatedly been found hidden in Costa Rican pineapple shipments bound for Europe, including a 2018 Spanish seizure of packets inside hollowed-out fruit.

In Hokkien, the pineapple's name sounds like a phrase meaning what?

In Hokkien the pineapple is 'ong lai', a homophone for 'prosperity arrives', which is why pineapples feature in Lunar New Year decorations in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Roughly how many tonnes of pineapples were produced worldwide in 2022?

World pineapple production reached about 29 million tonnes in 2022, with the three largest growers each producing close to 3 million tonnes of that total.