Ananas comosus
- noun
- /ˈænənəs kəˈmoʊsəs/
- Specialized
- Many commercial growers cultivate Ananas comosus to produce pineapples for the global market.
Examples
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The Ananas comosus is native to South America.
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The spiky crown of leaves is a distinctive feature of Ananas comosus plants.
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Botanists classify the pineapple as Ananas comosus, native to South America.
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I love the taste of Ananas comosus in smoothies.
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The Ananas comosus plant produces sweet, juicy pineapples that are popular in many tropical regions.
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In Hawaii, the Ananas comosus is a staple fruit often used in desserts and drinks.
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Farmers in Costa Rica grow Ananas comosus on large plantations to export pineapples worldwide.
Synonyms
A large tropical fruit with sweet, juicy yellow flesh, a tough spiky skin, and stiff leaves on top
A tropical plant that grows a large sweet fruit with a spiky top
Surface Forms
Morphology
Ananas + comosus
The genus element 'Ananas' is cross-linguistically recognizable as the pineapple plant, so a learner who knows that word could infer the phrase refers to that plant. However the species epithet 'comosus' is a Latin technical term (not found in the supplied dictionary) and B1 learners typically do not know Latin epithets or binomial naming conventions, so the full meaning is only partially derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Ananas comosus comes from two parts: Ananas comes from a South American word for 'excellent fruit', and comosus is a Latin word meaning 'tufted', which points to the plant's bunch of top leaves. So the name fits the pineapple — a tasty fruit with a crown of leaves.