Reproduction

When you eat a pineapple, you rarely find seeds. That is because commercial pineapple plants are reproduced as to not have seeds, because they are said to worsen the quality of the fruit.

Wind pollination does not occur in pineapples because the pollen is too sticky. It is known to be pollinated by hummingbirds, honeybees, and pineapple beetles. Sexual reproduction is very rare in nature because it has very slow germination.

The more common reproductive pathway is vegetative propagation. Put simply, vegetative propagation is taking one part of an existing plant and using it to grow a new plant. There are four parts of the pineapple that can be used for propagation: the crowns, slips, suckers, and shoots. The crown is the very top of the pineapple fruit. Slips are the leafy branches that are attached directly below the fruit. The suckers and shoots both originate from near the bottom of the stem. So even you can go buy a pineapple, cut off the top (crown), plant it, and grow your own pineapple. Pretty cool, huh? (9)

What else could we possibly learn about the pineapple? Well lets move on and learn about its interactions with other organisms here or return to the home page here.