Pineapple- Ananas comosus: Bromeliaceae

Origin

The pineapple (Ananas comosus: Bromeliaceae) is one of the most popular tropical fruits. The name pineapple in English (or piña in Pineapple1Spanish) comes from the similarity of the fruit to a pinecone. Ananas comes from anana, the Tupi word for the fruit, meaning “excellent fruit”. Comosus means tufted and refers to the stem of the fruit.

This fruit is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where its wild relatives occur. Portuguese had introduced the pineapple to India and Java, and the fruit, delighted with the climate that so closely mirrored its conditions of origin, spread throughout the Far East. The Indians carried it to the West Indies before Columbus arrived. In 1493 Columbus found the fruit on the island of Guadeloupe and carried it back to Spain and it was spread around the world on sailing ships that carried it for protection against scurvy. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines and may have taken it to Hawaii and Guam early in the 16th Century. The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in greenhouses for its fruit around 1720.

Characteristics

Growth Habit:

The pineapple plant is a herbaceous perennial, 0.75 to 1.5 m high with a spread of 1 to 1.2 m. It is essentially a short, stout stem with a rosette of waxy, strap like leaves. It is mostly grown at low elevations in areas with a temperature range of 15 to 30 ºC. Pineapple is tolerant to drought because of the special water storage cells. They can be grown with a wide range of rainfall from 600-2500 mm/annum, the optimum being 1000-1500 mm. Pineapple can be grown in a wide range of soils, but does not tolerate water logging. It can be grown as a pure crop on plantation scale or as an intercrop in coconut gardens.

Foliage:

The long-pointed leaves are 0.5 – 1.82 m in length, usually needle tipped and generally bearing sharp, up curved spines on the margins. They may be all green or variously striped with red, yellow or ivory down the middle or near the margins. As the stem continues to grow, it acquires at its apex a compact tuft of stiff, short leaves called the crown or top. Occasionally a plant may bear two or more heads instead of the normal one.

Flowers:

At blooming time, the stem elongates and enlarges near the apex and puts forth an inflorescence of small purple or red flowers. The flowers are pollinated by humming-birds, and these flowers usually develop small, hard seeds. Seeds are generally not found in commercially grown pineapple.

Fruit:

The oval to cylindrical-shaped, compound fruit develops from many small fruits fused together. It is both juicy and fleshy with the stem serving as the fibrous core. The tough, waxy rind may be dark green, yellow, orange-yellow or reddish when the fruit is ripe. The flesh ranges from nearly white to yellow. In size the fruits are up to 30 cm long and weigh 0.5 to 4.5 kg or more.

Area, Production & Productivity:

The important pineapple growing countries of the world are the Hawaiian Islands, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, Puerto Rico and India.
In India, it is grown in Karnataka, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland. It is also cultivated on limited areas in the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu, Goa and Orissa. National level area, production and productivity of pineapple are given below.