Pineapple 6″

Pineapple, Ananas comosus, is an herbaceous biennial or perennial plant in the family Bromeliaceae grown for its edible fruit. The pineapple plant has a short stout stem and a rosette of sword-shaped leaves with needle-like tips. The leaves are waxy, have upturned spines on the margins, and maybe solid green or striped with red, white, or cream. When the plant flowers, the stem begins to elongate and produces a flower head of small purple or red flowers, each with a pointed bract. The stem continues to elongate and sets down a tuft of short leaves called a ‘crown’. Individual fruits develop from the flowers and fuse to form one large cylindrical fruit topped by the crown. This fruit, known as pineapple, has a tough rind made up of hexagonal units and a fibrous, juicy flesh that may be yellow to white in color. Pineapple may reach 1.5–1.8 m (5–6 ft) in height and some varieties can grow for in excess of 20 years. Pineapple originates from the tropical regions of the Americas.