The Short History of Pineapple

When Columbus landed in Guadeloupe in 1493 he found pineapples,which probably came from Brazil. The word nana (perfumed),part of the native name retained in French and German ananas, is a brazilian Guarani vocable. As father Acosta observed as early as 1569,the spanish thought this new fruit resembled a pine cone,whence the Spanish name of Pina,and the English pineapple (the fruit was often just called a pine when it was first introduced into britain).  The Portuguese set about naturalizing the pineapple in India,Indonesia,Madagascar and Java,and it settled down very well.

Pineapples were also brought to Europe,of course to give the old world a taste of their succulence,but the emperor Charles V, the first monarch to try one, thought it very nasty. The long voyage had completely spoilt the decorative fruit. It was grown in Holland a century later,when hot-houses were first invented,by french hugenot who had taken refuge in leyden. Around 1642 a pineapple was grown in the Duchess of cleveland's hot-house. it was presented by the king Charles II,and immortalized by the court painter. Louis VIX is said to have asked La Quintine to grow this exotic marvel for him in the frames of the versailles vegetable garden,but it seems that his successor Louis XV was the only one to benefit. In any case pineapples became extremely fashionable in the second half of the 18th century. Market gardeners asked very high prices because of the great cost of growing them. As yet there could be no questiom of importing the fruit from the west indies,for transport was not mucj faster than in the days of the Empeor chares V.

Pineapples have become more democratic since air transport has made it possible to deliver them almost perfectly ripe,a miracle which today's consumers takes for granted. We not get pineapples from Hawaii, the west indies,Florida,Kenya,south Africa,Cameroon and the ivory coast. The french were eating nearly 50,00tonnes a year at the beginning of the 1980's :42,000 tonnes from ivory Coast and 5000 from Cameroon.

The pineapple is a collection of berries, a herbaceous plant.