Pineapple
Ananas comosus
A terrestrial bromeliad grown for its sweet, golden, edible fruit — the abacaxi of warm Brazil. POWO records it as South American in origin, its precise wild range obscured by ancient domestication, and Flora e Funga do Brasil documents Ananas in Brazil. The plant forms a low rosette of stiff, sword-shaped leaves, many forms armed with sharply toothed margins, from the centre of which a single stout stem rises bearing a dense cone of small purple flowers. Those flowers fuse together into the familiar multiple fruit (a syncarp), topped by a leafy crown that can itself be rooted to grow another plant. HONESTY: this is a frost-tender tropical, hardy in the ground only in roughly USDA zones 10a-11b, and it is slow — a plant takes well over a year from planting to a ripe fruit. Commercial clones are largely self-incompatible and, kept isolated from other clones, set the seedless fruit prized in the kitchen.
Climate fit: narrow (13/100)
Edible
Focal point
Container
Light
Full sun
Water
Moderate water
Mature size
30-48" tall · 24" apart
Hardy in zones
10a-11b
mild to nearly frost-free winters
Native in Illinois
No
Grown for its sweet, golden, edible multiple fruit — the abacaxi — eaten fresh, juiced, and cooked.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Won't grow here
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Won't grow here
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✕
Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 17 ecoregions — 11 climate-resilient through 2070 · 6 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.
Plant this, not that
Better fit for this place
For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.
Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'
Autumn-joy stonecrop
A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3-6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 2 feet. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Leucanthemum × superbum
Shasta daisy
The classic white-and-yellow garden daisy — a clump-forming herbaceous perennial bearing showy single flower heads of white ray florets around a yellow central disc from midsummer into fall. A garden hybrid bred by Luther Burbank in the 1890s near snow-covered Mt. Shasta in northern California, it grows 2-3 feet tall and is a mainstay of the perennial border, cottage garden, and cutting garden. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant, attracts butterflies, and is resistant to deer and rabbit browsing.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Rheum rhabarbarum
Rhubarb
A long-lived clump-forming perennial vegetable grown for its thick, tart leaf stalks (petioles), which range from deep red to pink to green and are used in sauces, jams, and pies. Bold, heart-shaped dark green leaves rise 2-3 feet over a wide crown, and tall whitish flower panicles appear from late spring into summer. The leaf blades are NOT edible — they carry toxic levels of oxalic acid — only the stalks are eaten.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Fragaria × ananassa
Garden strawberry
The cultivated strawberry of grocery shelves and home gardens — a low, stoloniferous herbaceous perennial of hybrid origin (a cross of the South American Fragaria chiloensis and the North American F. virginiana). Dense mounding rosettes of toothed, three-parted leaves carry loose clusters of five-petaled white flowers in spring, which ripen into the familiar cone-shaped red aggregate fruits studded with seed-like achenes. Plants run on above-ground stolons that root at the nodes to form new plantlets, so a single planting knits into a patch.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Solanum melongena
Eggplant
A warm-season member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) — a relative of tomato, potato, and pepper — grown for its showy, glossy edible berries that range from white and green through deep purple to nearly black depending on cultivar. The plant is technically a tender herbaceous perennial but is grown as an annual vegetable across most of North America, where it demands a long, hot, frost-free season to fruit well. Drooping violet star-shaped flowers give way to the familiar pendant fruit; the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots are toxic and only the fruit is eaten.
Musa acuminata
Banana
A giant herbaceous perennial from Southeast Asia and the principal wild ancestor of most cultivated dessert bananas. What looks like a trunk is a 'pseudostem' — tightly rolled leaf sheaths — topped by a fountain of huge, paddle-shaped leaves that can run 6-10 feet long, giving an instant tropical effect. In frost-free climates (USDA zones 10a-11b) an established clump produces a drooping flower spike and a hanging bunch of edible fruit, then that pseudostem dies and is replaced by a sucker from the base. It is frost-tender: everywhere colder it is grown as a bold container or greenhouse foliage plant that is overwintered indoors and rarely, if ever, fruits.
Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'
Autumn-joy stonecrop
A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3-6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 2 feet. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.
Strelitzia reginae
Bird of paradise
A clumping, multi-stemmed evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for its unmistakable crane-head flowers — a horizontal green-and-pink spathe from which bright orange sepals and vivid blue petals emerge like the crest of an exotic bird. Bold, paddle-shaped blue-green leaves on long stalks form a 3-4 foot fountain of foliage. Winter hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 (frost-free subtropics); everywhere colder it is grown as a houseplant or summered-out container plant. It blooms reliably only from a well-established, somewhat crowded clump, so patience is the key to flowers.
Zantedeschia aethiopica
Calla lily
A bold, clumping rhizomatous perennial grown for its elegant, pure-white funnel-shaped flowers — actually a curved spathe wrapped around a yellow finger-like spadix — held on tall stems above large, glossy, arrow-shaped deep-green leaves from late winter into summer. Native to the wetlands and seeps of southern Africa, Zantedeschia aethiopica is the classic florist's calla and a striking water-margin and container plant, thriving in consistently moist to wet rich soil in full sun to part shade. It is tender (hardy in zones 8a-10b), where it overwinters in the ground and can be near-evergreen; colder gardeners grow it from lifted rhizomes or under heavy mulch. Two cautions are load-bearing: every part is toxic if eaten (calcium-oxalate raphides), and in mild, wet climates it can escape and naturalize into an invasive weed.
Dahlia (hybrid)
Dahlia
A tuberous-rooted member of the aster family native to Mexico and Central America, grown for showy summer-to-fall blooms in nearly every color except blue. Hybrids in commerce span ten flower-form groups (single, anemone, collarette, waterlily, decorative, fall, pompon, cactus, semi-cactus, and miscellaneous) and range from 1 to 6 feet tall. Winter-hardy only to USDA Zones 7-10; in colder regions the tubers are lifted in fall and stored frost-free, so most North American gardeners grow it as a summer annual.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Pineapple (Ananas comosus). Retrieved 2026, June 24, from https://plotwright.com/plants/ananas-comosus
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
Plants of the World Online (POWO)
Botanical research database
Backs 17 fields
Identity
Summary
Plant type
Light
Moisture
Hardiness
Heat zone
Size
Spacing
Habit
Design roles
Seasonal interest
Growth stages
Lifecycle
Regional guidance
Success tips
Designer notes