Tag Archives: facts

When you visit Lloyd’s Corner you’ll always learn something new about pineapples that you might not have known before. In addition to a collection of recipes (found here), we also strive to bring you some additional information about how this tasty fruit can also influence your lifestyle when made an integral part of your diet.

But the pineapple has so much more to share! This week’s post brings you five fun facts that we’re sure will impress a crowd at your next dinner party:

1. How long does it take to grow a pineapple?

Always the most popular at any party, pineapples are by nature fashionably late. One pineapple plant produces a pineapple only once a year. But, it’s sure worth the wait!

2. How many pineapples come from the same plant?

It’s a pretty short family tree when it comes to pineapple plants. After a pineapple plant is harvested, this plant will never produce another fruit. However, it will produce daughter plants. Lovingly called little “suckers,” three to four of these new plants will sprout. Only one sucker will be cultivated to bear another fruit while all others will be removed.  This second generation plant will produce one more fruit. By the end of two years, two pineapples will have been produced. After the second harvest, all organic matter must is ground and incorporated into the soil and the circle of life will repeat itself with a new set of plants. Ancestry.com anyone? 

3. Why do we call this fruit a “pineapple”?

Actually, the word “pineapple” in English was first recorded in 1398 when it was originally used to describe what we now call “pine cones.” When Europeans discovered this tropical fruit in the Americas, because of its similar appearance to a pine cone, they began calling it as such. When they returned with the tasty treasure, the word “pine cone” was introduced so that “pineapple” could be used exclusively for the new fruit.

4. What contributed to their spread around the world?

Pineapples took quite a few cruises in their early days. Originally, the fruit was kept on ships to ward off sailors’ scurvy. Sailors would wash their pineapples down with a pony’ (measure) of rum. Yo ho, ho!

5. And what’s the most surprising fact about everyone’s favorite fruit?

Pineapple is not, strictly speaking, a fruit. Rather it is 100-200 fruitlets all fused together!

And now you know!

Dr. Lloyd