Pineapple

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant with edible fruit and the most economically significant plant in the bromeliad family. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuries by the indigenous peoples. The English name "pineapple" was first recorded in the early 14th century as "pynappel", and was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees. The term "pineapple" was first applied to the fruit in the 1660s. Pineapple is known as אננס (ananas) in Hebrew, ananas in French, ananas in Spanish, ananas in German, ananas in Italian, ananás in Portuguese, ananás in Czech, ananas in Russian, ananas in Dutch, ananás in Polish, and ananás in Greek. The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows as a rosette of sword-shaped leaves 3–5 ft (91–152 cm) long, usually wider at the base, with a woodier stem when it is fruiting. The fruit is a multiple fruit, in which many fruitlets and seeds are contained within the skin. Pineapples do not ripen significantly after picking. Pineapples are the second most popular tropical fruit in the world, behind bananas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, fresh pineapple was a luxury that only the very wealthy could afford. Pineapple was brought to northern Europe by the Dutch East India Company and was widely consumed by the Dutch in the 17th century. Today, pineapple is cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries, including the Philippines, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Indonesia.