A pineapple forms when fruits from many flowers merge with the central stalk into one multiple fruit.
A pineapple looks and slices like one large fruit, but botanically it is a community of fruits joined together.
Many flowers grow on one inflorescence. Their small fruits develop and fuse with one another and with the stalk tissue, producing the single solid form we recognize.
The polygonal marks on the rind are clues to those individual origins. Each section traces back to one flower in the pineapple's crowded floral mosaic.
FOOD
Carbon dioxide made by propionic acid bacteria gathers inside ripening cheese and expands its eyes. Tiny air cavities in trace plant particles such as hay provide nuclei where bubbles can begin.
A gluten network traps carbon dioxide made by yeast fermentation. Gas and steam expand in the oven before proteins and starch set the airy structure.
Capsaicin opens the same TRPV1 sensory channels activated by damaging heat. The brain receives a heat-and-pain signal even without a large temperature rise.