49 Fun Facts About Pineapple

On which continent is the pineapple plant native?

South America: wild pineapples come from the Paraná–Paraguay basin, and Indigenous peoples carried the crop north to Mexico and the Caribbean before Europeans arrived.

What is the pineapple's scientific name?

Ananas comosus: wild pineapples once named as a separate species, Ananas bracteatus, are now counted as a variety of it.

Which plant belongs to the same botanical family as the pineapple?

Spanish moss: it is no true moss but a flowering plant in the pineapple's family, hanging from trees across the American South.

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

Christopher Columbus: he is said to have carried a pineapple back to Spain, though the fruit tended to rot on the long Atlantic crossing.

Why did 17th-century English speakers give the pineapple its name?

The fruit resembled a pine cone, and 'pine apple' had already meant a pine cone since the 1300s, so the old name moved to the new fruit.

Botanically, what is a pineapple?

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.

What is the 'Pineapple Express' that drenches the US West Coast?

An atmospheric river: it carries tropical moisture from near Hawaii to the coast, and its heaviest storms can bring floods and mudslides.

In the wild, pineapples are mainly pollinated by what?

Hummingbirds: Hawaii barred importing them, since pollinated fruit sets hard seeds that growers don't want.

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 country's growers were the first in Europe to grow pineapple fruit?

Holland: Dutch growers were fruiting pineapples by the 1680s, and plants from Dutch gardens went on to stock English and French gardens.

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 were pineapples an 18th-century wealth symbol?

They cost a fortune to import or raise in heated pineries, so a single fruit went on show at dinner after dinner, and some were rented for an evening.

In architecture, a carved pineapple traditionally symbolises what?

Hospitality: probably through its association with the nobility, the fruit became a favourite 18th-century motif on gateposts, doorways and finials.

The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly topped by a giant stone pineapple, stands in which country?

Scotland: restored with the Landmark Trust, the folly can now be rented as a holiday home.

Which cultivar, brought to France in 1820, dominated 20th-century world pineapple production?

Smooth Cayenne: from France it went on to Britain and was spread around the world, as far as Australia.

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

James Dole: in 1927 he offered $25,000 for the first flight from Oakland to Honolulu, a contest that cost ten lives.

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

Lanai: pineapple farming there wound down in the early 1990s, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison bought almost all of the island in 2012.

What did engineer Henry Ginaca invent that transformed Hawaii's pineapple canning industry?

An automatic peeling and coring machine: it more than doubled how many pineapples could be processed a minute, from about 15.

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

The crown: the plant's stem keeps growing up through the fruit, forming its core, and ends in this tuft of stiff leaves.

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

Jamaica: at independence in 1962, the arms' Latin motto gave way to 'Out of Many, One People'.

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

Bromelain: heat breaks it down, which is why cooked or canned pineapple won't tenderise meat.

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

Manganese: its black ore was long used by glassmakers to take the green tint out of glass.

Which Mexican taco filling is pork marinated with chillies and pineapple?

Al pastor: Lebanese immigrants brought spit-roasted shawarma to Mexico, and local cooks swapped the lamb for pork.

Pineapples stop ripening once picked, but which fruit keeps ripening off the plant?

Banana: like other climacteric fruits, it keeps producing ethylene, the gas that drives ripening, after it is picked.

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

Plant the leafy top: set in soil it roots into a new plant, while commercial growers plant side shoots called slips and suckers.

About how long does a pineapple plant take from planting to its first fruit?

About 18 months: farms grow new plants from shoots rather than seeds, and commercial fruit is normally seedless.

Despite its name, Hawaiian pizza was invented in which country?

Canada: Greek-born Sam Panopoulos first served it in Chatham, Ontario, in 1962, and pizza purists have argued about it ever since.

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

Iceland: Guðni Th. Jóhannesson said it while taking questions from high-school pupils in Akureyri, and the joke set off a worldwide media storm.

Pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum make which cocktail?

Piña colada: Rupert Holmes wrote it into his 1979 hit 'Escape' at the last minute, replacing a line about Humphrey Bogart.

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

Puerto Rico: San Juan's Caribe Hilton says its bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero created the drink there in 1954, though rival bartenders made claims too.

What is tepache, a traditional Mexican drink?

A fermented pineapple beverage: its name probably comes from Nahuatl tepiātl, a word for a raw-maize drink given to people who fainted.

What is the name of SpongeBob's pet snail, who shares his pineapple house under the sea?

Gary: he meows like a cat, and in the episode 'Have You Seen This Snail?' he runs away after SpongeBob forgets to feed him.

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

Seth Rogen: his character witnesses a murder and goes on the run with Franco's dealer.

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

The Philippines: each piña strand is scraped from the leaf by hand and knotted one by one, and Aklan's handloom weaving is on UNESCO's heritage list.

Which TV detective comedy slipped a pineapple into every episode as a running gag?

Psych: some were tucked so far into the background that spotting them became a game for fans.

Clemens Wilmenrod popularised Toast Hawaii as the first TV chef of which country?

Germany: Wilmenrod presented the ham-and-pineapple toast in 1955, though nobody is sure the recipe was really his.

Early European pineapple growers plunged their pots into rotting bark supplied by which trade?

Leather tanning: the tanneries' spent oak bark gave off heat as it rotted, warming the pots from below.

Which weapon earned the nickname 'pineapple'?

A grenade: the grooves across its iron casing were also meant to give soldiers a firmer grip.

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.

The Big Pineapple, a 16-metre roadside landmark, stands in which Australian state?

Queensland: Prince Charles and Princess Diana rode its plantation train when they visited Australia in 1983.

What is nata de piña, a traditional dessert?

A jelly fermented with bacteria: its coconut-water cousin, nata de coco, spread further because coconuts, unlike pineapples, are available all year.

Growers fight pineapple wilt by controlling which insects?

Ants: they tend the mealybugs that spread the disease, carrying them from plant to plant and feeding on their honeydew.

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

Singapore Sling: yet the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book printed it with no pineapple juice at all.

Rather than on a tree, how does a pineapple grow?

Atop a low, spiky plant: each plant sends up one main fruit, and its side shoots can go on to bear more.

Which seafaring nation had introduced the pineapple to India by about 1550?

The Portuguese: they are also credited with carrying the fruit to Africa.

Costa Rican pineapple shipments to Europe have often served as cover for what?

Drug trafficking: in one 2018 case, Spanish police found cocaine packed inside hollowed-out Costa Rican pineapples at a Madrid market.

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.

Which Cornish estate restored a Victorian pineapple pit warmed by rotting horse manure?

Heligan: its gardens lay lost and overgrown from the First World War until they were restored in the 1990s.