Pineapple (now termed pine cones). When European explorers encountered this tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them "pineapples" (first referenced in 1664, for resemblance to pine cones). In the scientific binomial "Ananas comosus", "ananas", the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi word "nanas", meaning "excellent fruit", as recorded by André Thevet in 1555, and "comosus", "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the genus "Ananas" are often called pine, as well, in other languages. The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to tall, although sometimes it can be taller. In appearance, the
Boletellus ananas including "Pinus" and "Quercus" species in southeastern North America and Central America, "Quercus humboldtii" in Colombia, various Fagaceae and Dipterocarpaceae species in Malaysia, and "Leptospermum" and "Pinus" species in New Zealand. In Guyana, the humic deposits on "Dicymbe" trunks bearing "B. ananas" are consistently permeated with abundant ectomycorrhizas. The fungus was reported as forming mycorrhizal associations with eucalypts in Australia, based on fruit body association with trees. Its North American distribution encompasses a range extending north from North Carolina to Florida, west to Texas and south to Mexico, and Central America. In 2008, it was reported for the first time