The Story of the Pineapple Essay -- Botany

The Story of the Pineapple After the discovery of America, new food plants became known to European people. The pineapple symbolizes balmy tropical lands and leisurely life on tropical islands. The pineapple, as well as other agricultural crops such as maize, potatoes, beans, peanuts, and tobacco, originated in America and were unknown to people of the old World. The story of the pineapple falls into three distinct periods. The first period precedes the discovery of America and goes back into the antiquity of South America where the pineapple is believed to have developed. There is very little information about it during this period but it is known that the pineapple was already being cultivated and widely distributed through inhabited areas of the American tropics. The second period, covering about 400 years, extends from 1493 to 1900 when Columbus first saw pineapples on the Island of Guadeloupe in the West Indies. The third period, beginning in 1900, is characterized by the industrial development of pineapple production and canning around the world, making the canned fruit available to people living in nontropical countries. Wild pineapples are still to be found in parts of tropical America in which they are small fruited, inferior in eating qualities, and extremely seedy. To eat a pineapple full of these seeds is like trying to eat one of our present day seedless fruits containing one thousand small bits of gravel. It was believed that long periods of propagation of a domesticated species would result in the plant losing its ability to produce seeds. Actually there is no scientific evidence to this belief. Seedlessness usually appears in normal seed-bearing plants as a result of a mutation in the chromosomes... ...alting ocean water for domestic and agricultural use. Future changes and techniques will help utilization of additional land areas and supply more pineapples to people. Bibliography 1. Collins, J.L., The Pineapple, Leonard Hill Books Limited, New York, 1960. 2. Cook, A. A. 1975. Diseases of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits and Nuts, Hafner Press, New York, 3. Fisher, D.V. 1976.History of Fruit Growing and Handling in United States of America and Canada, Regatta City Press LTD., Canada. 4. Fraser, S.M.S. 1931. American Fruits, orange Judd Publishing Company, Inc. New York.. 5. Hartman, H. T. 1981. Plant Science, Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersey. 6. Simmons, A. E. 1972. Growing Unusual Fruit, Walker and Company, New York. 7. Williams, C.N. 1979. Tree and Field Crops of the Wetter Regions of the Tropics, Longman Group Ltd.