Anassa domestica Rumphius from Amboina or Ambon in the Moluccas then part of the Dutch East Indies. Attempts have been made to distinguish Ananas comosus from Ananas sativus, a renaming of Bromelia ananas but no convincing distinctions are evident. Furthermore the argument that Anassa domestica was native to Amboina does not take into account the some century earlier occupation by the Portuguese who undoubtedly imported it from Brazil (cf. J. L. Collins, Economic Botany 3(4):335.1949.).
Note. For further information on Ananas comosus, the widely cultivated pineapple, consult the encyclopedic work by J. L. Collins (1960).
As he points out the tremendous amount of cultivars of the early nineteenth century have largely become extinct with the transition of pineapple culture from a hobby of the wealthy to a large scale commercial crop based on the Cayenne and a very few others. For those interested in the history of these cultivars it should be noted that Munro (1835, 1860) published an account of 52 of them with numerous synonyms, Beer (1857) translated it into German and added 18 more names, and E. Morren (1878) translated the latter into French with no further additions. The latest detailed listing by Maxwell O: Johnson (1935) gives some 135 varieties. —SeeSmith & Downs 1979
Common names: ananas, nanas, pina, pineapple, abacaxi (Brazil), matzatli (Aztec). —SeeBartholomew et al. 2003
