Pineapple

The pineapple is a species of plant in the bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae). It is originally native to the Americas and is now cultivated as a fruit plant in tropical areas worldwide. It forms fleshy fruit clusters that can be eaten fresh or processed into preserves and juice. The word pineapple comes from naná 'fruit' in the Guaraní language. The Latin species epithet comosus 'crested' alludes to the leaf crested at the upper end of the fruit set.

The club-shaped stem of the pineapple is up to 35 cm long and a small portion is sunken into the ground. At the base it has a diameter of 2 to 3.5 cm, at the thickest point, below the tip, it is 5 to 7 cm. The stem is covered with a dense rosette of leaves, usually about 70 to 80, which are arranged in a spiral (left or right) on the stem. The leaves are narrowly lanceolate, up to 120 cm long and 3 to 7 cm wide. The leaf sheath encloses the stem by about two-thirds. The leaf margins are curved upward so that the leaf cross-section is crescent-shaped. This increases the leaf's resistance to bending. The leaf margin is sharply toothed like a spine.

The teeth may also be absent in some varieties. The tip of the leaf is thorny pointed. The roots are adventitious, arising from the lower nodes of the stem. They form a dense root network that penetrates about one meter deep into the soil and extends one to two meters laterally. The roots are usually mycorrhizal. Roots also develop in the above-ground leaf axils, growing to ten centimeters in length, and absorb water and nutrients that accumulate in the leaf rosette. The 30-centimeter-long inflorescence stem develops each year from the stem's vegetative cone. More than 100 individual flowers sit in eight spirals on the cone-shaped inflorescence. At the upper end are deciduous bracts that form a crested head.

The pineapple fruit is rich in vitamins (especially vitamin C) and minerals, as well as enzymes (including bromelain or bromelin, invertase).