the.com/pineapple

a fruit so guarded by the rich they hired men to protect single ones

means A tropical fruit with a spiky exterior, juicy yellow flesh, and a tuft of stiff leaves on top, native to South America.

from From Middle English 'pinappel,' which originally meant a pine cone — quite literally the 'apple' (any fruit) of a pine tree. When European explorers met the New World fruit and thought its scaly, segmented look resembled a pine cone, they transferred the name. English kept 'pineapple' for the fruit and quietly moved 'pine cone' to the actual cone, while most other European languages reached instead for the Tupí word that gave us 'ananas.'

flesh eater: its enzyme digests you back, hence the sting
not a pine: actually hundreds of berries fused into one
slow grower: takes two to three years per fruit
rental prop: Georgians rented them for dinner-party flexing

for instance

hawaiian pineapple industry — dole food company planted 20,000 acres on lanai, hawaii in the 1920s-1980s

costa rica pineapple exports — world's largest exporter since 2005, producing 3+ million tons annually

del monte gold pineapple — genetically modified in 1996, sweeter yellow variety first sold in us supermarkets