The plant is indigenous to South America and is said to originate from the area between southern Brazil and Paraguay;[2] however, little is known about the origin of the domesticated pineapple (Pickersgill, 1976). M.S. Bertoni (1919)[20] considered the Paraná–Paraguay River drainages to be the place of origin of A. comosus.[21] The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, where it was cultivated by the Mayas and the Aztecs. Columbus encountered the pineapple in 1493 on the leeward island of Guadeloupe