pineapple

A truck being loaded with pineapples on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Like bananas, the pineapples have to be harvested when green and unripe so that by the time they arrive at retail outlets many thousands of miles away they are just right for eating.

Pineapple plantation, Costa Rica. Native to South and Central America, pineapples are today cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas around the world, with Thailand being the main producer. The pineapple fruit ripens five to six months after the plant begins to flower.

Large, juicy fruit of the pineapple plant, which belongs to the bromeliad family and is native to South and Central America but now cultivated in many other tropical areas, such as Hawaii and Queensland, Australia. The plant's mauvish flowers are produced in the second year, and afterwards join with their bracts (specialized leaves protecting the buds) to form the fleshy fruit, which looks like a giant cone. (Genus Ananas comosus, family Bromeliaceae.)

For export to world markets the fruits are cut unripe and lack the sweet juiciness typical of the canned pineapple (usually the smoother-skinned Cayenne variety), which is allowed to mature fully.