The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant with an edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, also called pineapples, and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family.
Pineapples may be cultivated from a crown cutting of the fruit, possibly flowering in 5–10 months and fruiting in the following six months. Pineapples do not ripen significantly after harvest.
Pineapples can be consumed fresh, cooked, juiced, or preserved. They are found in a wide array of cuisines. In addition to consumption, the pineapple leaves are used to produce the textile fiber piña in the Philippines, commonly used as the material for the men's barong Tagalog and women's baro't saya formal wear in the country. The fiber is also used as a component for wallpaper and other furnishings.
Mimi Sheller writes: "The pineapple entered European iconography as a symbol of welcome and hospitality, and also eventually found its way into botanical gardens such as the Chelsea Physic Garden, where it was grown in heated pits." The sweet fruit had a "mysterious aura" in the Age of Sail because except for a "small elite with access to glass hothouses", tropical fruits could only be tasted where they were cultivated. Christopher Cumo writes that "The Spanish who followed Columbus delighted in eating pineapple and in writing about it for a European public eager to learn of the flora and fauna of the Americas ... The pineapple was first a luxury because transit from the tropics to Europe was expensive in the age of sail. In this respect, pineapple was much like sugar, a commodity of privilege before it became an item of the masses." Cumo writes that "pineapple was the fruit of colonialism" because the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and British all sought to establish pineapple plantations in the tropics of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
In architecture, pineapple figures are a decorative element symbolizing hospitality. Usually in plaster or carved wood, pineapples images occur in finials, pendants, "broken" pediments, and door knockers.
Source: Pineapple from Wikipedia
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