Pineapples are another amazing tropical fruit that grows with ease here. You can trim the bottom leaves off the crown, stick the crown in the ground and it grows with no more attention required. Lilo, our neighbor, planted 2 patches of pineapples at the bottom edge of our property about 4 years ago. It takes about 3 years for a plant to start producing and last year, we enjoyed a few dozen pineapples. Starting in February of this year, we've been harvesting a pineapple a day. When we pick a fruit, we twist off the crown and "hijos". "Hijos" are off-shoots that grow from the bottom of each pineapple where the base of the fruit connects to the stalk. The individual hijo resembles a crown and often one pineapple has 3-4 hijos. With so many crowns and hijos to replant, M has made patterns of pineapple plants across most of the open areas of the property. Just about anywhere that I walk, I am dodging
the meter long spines that arc up from the ground. These long spines work to protect the plant from predators. We prefer to keep a pineapple on the stalk until it is a glowing orange-gold color. If we wait too long then we find a half-eaten fruit still on the stalk. It's a competition between us and the mapaches, as raccoons are called here, as to who gets to the fruit first. We grow a white pulp variety and the commercially available yellow pulp fruit. The yellow variety has spiny leaves with a sharp serrated edge. I usually wear gardening gloves when working around the pineapple plants because the serrated edges can cut skin.
Pineapples are pollinated by hummingbirds. I catch glimpses of hummingbirds as they dart around the hibiscus flowers. Or I hear the whir of their fast-beating wings as they cruise past my head on the way to their next nectar feast. In its initial stage, a pineapple fruit sprouts many flowers. One flower for each of its "eyes." The eyes are the dark spots that you see on the pulp of the
fruit at the outside edge of the ring. When you look at the outer peel of a pineapple, it is a series of roughly hexagonal shaped scales that run in a spiral pattern around the fruit. The scales are a"fruitlet" that has produced a flower and been pollinated. Mathematical studies of this pattern show that it reflects the Fibonacci sequence. One of the many interesting instances of the Fibonacci sequence displayed in nature.
The pineapple developed into an interesting symbol in the centuries after it was imported to Europe and later North America. Have you ever noticed when touring an historic home, the newell post of the staircase railing is a carved pineapple? Or stone sculpted pineapples adorn the gate posts? Pineapple was difficult to grow outside the tropics. Only the very rich could afford to maintain a greenhouse with sufficient heat, sun and humidity for the fruit to thrive. If you were a guest at one of these homes, it was a great honor to be served a taste of the precious pineapple. Incorporating an image of a pineapple near the entrance of a home was a signal to guests that the hosts will offer them gracious hospitality. When you come to our home, we are happy to offer you hospitality.Our hospitality is rather rustic and it will be offered with fresh, organically grown pineapple.
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