 Bromeliaceae

Bromeliaceae is the flowering-plant family containing the pineapple and plants such as Tillandsia usneoides, commonly called Spanish moss. The family includes ground-growing plants and epiphytes, which grow on other plants as supports. Those different habits illustrate why a family is an evolutionary classification rather than a single way of obtaining physical support.^[ref]

The pineapple supplies a distinctive reproductive example. Its multiple fruit develops from several flowers in an inflorescence. That familiar product helps identify one family member, but it should not be converted into a claim that every member of Bromeliaceae produces a pineapple-like edible structure.^[ref]

For an illustrative classification exercise, compare a ground-grown pineapple with an epiphyte attached to a branch. Recording habitat and support alone would separate them ecologically, while floral and inherited characters can place them in the same family. Conversely, two unrelated plants growing on branches do not become close relatives simply by sharing that habit.