A single pineapple plant takes up to two years to grow just one fruit.

Pineapples grow from parts of an existing plant, like the leafy top called the crown. In countries like Costa Rica, it takes 18 to 24 months for a new plant to produce a harvest. For the first year, the plant only grows leaves. It can grow up to 80 long leaves to collect energy from the sun.Once the plant is large enough, a stalk grows from the center. This stalk produces up to 200 small flowers. These flowers eventually join together to form one single pineapple. This part of the process takes another five to seven months.Because each plant only makes one fruit at a time, pineapples take a lot of space and time to grow. Farmers sometimes use a gas called ethylene to make all the plants in a field flower at the same time. This helps them harvest the fruit more easily. In the 1700s, the long growing time made pineapples so expensive that they were a symbol of wealth.