Strawberry
A strawberry is a short plant in the wild strawberry genus of the rose family. It is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus Fragaria. The name is used for its very common sweet edible "fruit" and for flavors that taste like it.
| Strawberry Fragaria × ananassa | |
|---|---|
_single.jpg.webp) | |
| Strawberry fruit | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Genus: | Fragaria |
| Species: | F. × ananassa |
| Binomial name | |
| Fragaria × ananassa | |
The real fruit of the plant are the tiny "seeds" around the "fruit". The fruit is actually a sweet swelling of the plant's stem around the real fruit, which people call the pips.
The plant grown today is a mix of two other species of wild strawberries. It was first grown in the 1750s.
Name
The Latin name of the strawberry used in science is Fragaria × ananassa. Fragaria is the name of the genus of "strawberry-like" plants. The × mark means that it is a hybrid, a mix of two other species. The Latin name ananassa says the hybrid is "pineapple-like". The strawberry is sometimes called the "garden strawberry" so that people don't mix it up with the other wild strawberries of the genus Fragaria.
The name is a bit misleading and is special to English. The other Germanic languages do not have a name like it. No one is really sure where the name came from.[1] The plant is not a kind of straw, and its fruit is not really a berry.
Farming
Most strawberries are grown on farms. Strawberry farmers often have bees in hives. The bees pollinate the strawberries.
Strawberry stems are called runners. They grow above ground. They are a type of stolon.[2]
Fruit
The real fruit of the strawberries are the achenes,[3] which people usually think of as the little seeds around the outside of the larger red "fruit". This kind of fruit, where different ovaries grow into a single larger "fruit", is called an "aggregate fruit".[4][5]
References
- "strawberry, n.", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1919.
- "Stem Modifications". Boundless Biology. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
- "achenes". Inhs.uiuc.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
- "Aggretage Fruits". Inhs.uiuc.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-01-23. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
- "The Strawberry: a multiple fruit". Carnegiemuseums.org. Archived from the original on 2011-12-28. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
- "Nutrition facts for strawberries, raw, one NLEA serving, 152 g". Nutritiondata.com. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
