What type of fruit is pineapple?

1. Analyze the question The question asks which category of fruit the pineapple belongs to. Fruits are classified by how they develop from the flower.

2. Explain the concept

• Simple fruit: develops from a single ovary of one flower (e.g., orange, tomato, mango).
• Aggregate fruit: develops from one flower that has many separate carpels (ovaries), so many small fruitlets sit on one receptacle (e.g., strawberry, raspberry, soursop).
• Multiple (composite) fruit: develops from the ovaries of many separate flowers in one inflorescence. These flowers fuse into a single mass as they ripen (e.g., pineapple, breadfruit, fig, jackfruit).
• Capsule: a type of dry simple fruit that splits open (e.g., okra, cotton).

3. Solution

• The pineapple starts as a spike of many small flowers on a central axis.
• Each flower produces a small fruitlet, and these fuse together around the core.
• The "eyes" or scales on the pineapple's surface are the remains of the individual flowers.
• Because the fruit comes from many flowers fused together, it is a multiple fruit.

4. Answer Option D. Multiple is correct.

Option C, "Complex," is not a standard fruit classification, so ignore it. Option A, aggregate, is a common trap: aggregate fruits come from one flower with many carpels, while multiple fruits come from many flowers.

5. Exam tip Remember "Multiple = Many flowers." Pineapple, breadfruit, and fig are the common multiple fruits in Nigerian exams. For aggregate, think "one flower, many ovaries," as in strawberry.