Ikea Pineapple plant

mustrum_ridcully

"Went" to Ikea yesterday and whilst in the plants section saw they were selling pineapple plants with little tennis ball sized pineapples on them. I was rather puzzled by the sticker which said the fruit was non-edible (or words to that effect).

Now I understand that you probably won't want to eat the fruit but as far as I know there aren't any pineapples that are in fact inedible. Any one know any more - don't want to have someone try and eat the fruit and make themselves ill?

Lotus-eater

Maybe sprayed with something that you wouldn't like to eat?

If it has the Latin name on the plant, you should be able to work it out.

Or are the "pineapples" plastic?

alanobrien

Probably just young and hence unripe, and as such poisonous. It can "irrirate the throat and act as a drastic purgative" sounds nasty :eek:

mustrum_ridcully

Seemed like a real plant, had the name Ananas but no more, which boils it down to a type of pineapple.

Wow never knew that unripe pineapples were poisonous! You learn something new everyday.

al_yrpal

You can grow your own easily by lopping off the top of a pineapple. Among the leaves you will find some roots. Put this in some compost and put a ripe banana on the pot for a few days. The ethylene gas the pineapple relaeses will spur the plant top to produce a new pineapple.

Only buy a pineapple that is green, the greener the better. Orange pineapples (as sold by Tesco) are going over

Al