The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; Fragaria × ananassa)
The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of F. virginiana from eastern North America and F. chiloensis, which was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. of F. × ananassa have replaced the woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca in commercial production. In 2023, world production of strawberries exceeded ten million tons, led by China with 40% of the total.
Strawberries have appeared in literature and art from Roman times; Virgil wrote about the snake lurking beneath the strawberry, an image reinterpreted by later writers including Shakespeare. Strawberries appear in Italian, Flemish, and German paintings, including Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It has been understood to symbolise the ephemerality of earthly joys or the benefit that blessed souls get from religion, or to allegorise death and resurrection. By the late 20th century, its meaning had shifted: it symbolised female sexuality.
Evolution
History and taxonomy
In Europe, until the 17th century cultivated plants were obtained by transplanting strawberries from the forests; the plants were propagated asexually by pegging down the
Stolon, allowing them to root, and then separating the new plants.
, the Virginia strawberry, was brought to Europe from eastern North America;
F. chiloensis, the Chilean strawberry, was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. At first introduction to Europe, the Chilean strawberry plants grew vigorously, but produced no fruit. French gardeners in
Brittany in the 1750s noticed that the Chilean plants bore only female flowers. They planted the wild woodland strawberry
F. vesca among the Chilean plants to provide pollen; the Chilean strawberry plants then bore abundant fruits.
In 1759, Philip Miller recorded the 'pine strawberry' ( F. ananassa) in Chelsea, England.
Further breeding in the following centuries produced varieties with a longer cropping season and more fruit.
File:Fragaria vesca LC0389.jpg| Fragaria vesca, a wild woodland strawberry, was cultivated until the 17th century.
File:Strawberry gariguette DSC03063.JPG|Antoine Nicolas Duchesne discovered that the cultivated strawberry ('Gariguette' pictured) was a hybrid of F. chiloensis and F. virginiana.
Phylogeny
The
phylogeny of the cultivated strawberry within the genus
Fragaria of the
Rosaceae family was determined by
chloroplast DNA in 2021. The
polyploidy (number of sets of
) is shown as "2N" etc. by each species.
Description
In culinary terms, a strawberry is an edible fruit. From a botanical point of view, it is not a berry but an
aggregate fruit accessory fruit fruit, because the fleshy part is derived from the receptacle. Each apparent seed on the outside of the strawberry is actually an
achene, a botanical fruit with a seed inside it.
File:Two strawberry leaves sunny.jpg|Leaves
File:Flower of Fragaria × ananassa.JPG|Flower
File:Garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) close-up.jpg| (botanical fruits)
File:Strawberry growth (Video).webm|Growth (video)
Composition
Nutrition
Raw strawberries are 91% water, 8%
, 1% protein, and contain negligible fat (table). A reference amount of supplies 33
, is a rich source of
vitamin C (65% of the
Daily Value, DV), and a good source of
manganese (17% DV), with no other
in significant content (table). Strawberries contain a modest amount of essential unsaturated fatty acids in the
achene (seed) oil.
Phytochemicals
Garden strawberries contain diverse
, including the
protein dimer ellagitannin agrimoniin, which is an isomer of sanguiin H-6.
Other polyphenols present include
, such as
,
,
and
, such as hydroxybenzoic acid and hydroxycinnamic acid.
Although achenes comprise only about 1% of the total fresh weight of a strawberry, they contribute 11% of all polyphenols in the whole fruit; achene phytochemicals include
ellagic acid, ellagic acid
, and ellagitannins.
Pelargonidin-3-glucoside is the major anthocyanin pigment in strawberries, giving them their red colour, with cyanidin-3-glucoside in smaller amounts. Strawberries also contain purple minor pigments, such as dimeric anthocyanins.
Flavour and fragrance
Sweetness, fragrance and complex flavour are important attributes of strawberries.
In
plant breeding and farming, emphasis is placed on sugars, acids, and
essential oils compounds, which improve the taste and fragrance of the ripe fruit.
,
, and
are the chemical compounds having the strongest relationships to strawberry flavour, sweetness and fragrance, with a total of 31 out of some 360 volatile compounds significantly correlated to desirable flavour and fragrance.
Allergy
Some people experience an anaphylactoid reaction to eating strawberries.
Varieties
Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit.
Cultivation
Production
+ Strawberry production
|
| 4.21 |
| 1.25 |
| 0.73 |
| 0.68 |
| 0.64 |
| 0.33 |
| 10.49 |
|
In 2023, world production of strawberries was 10.5million , led by China with 40% of the total; the United States was the main secondary producer.
For commercial production, plants can be propagated from bare root plants or plugs. One method of cultivation uses annual plasticulture;
In the plasticulture system, raised beds are covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants are planted through holes punched in this covering. Irrigation tubing can be run underneath if necessary.
Another method uses a compost sock. Plants grown in compost socks have been shown to produce significantly more , , fructose, glucose, sucrose, malic acid, and citric acid than fruit produced in the black plastic mulch or matted row systems.
Strawberries may be propagated by seed.
File:Dülmen, Kirchspiel, Erdbeerfeld -- 2015 -- 6492-6.jpg|Strawberry field in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
File:Plasticulture.jpg|alt=A large strawberry field with plastic covering the earth around the strawberry plants.|A field using the plasticulture method
Manuring and harvesting
Nitrogen fertiliser is often needed at the beginning of every planting year. There are normally adequate levels of phosphorus and potash when fields have been fertilised for other crops in preceding years. To provide more organic matter, a cover crop of wheat or rye can be planted in the year before planting the strawberries. Strawberries prefer a somewhat acidic pH from 5.5 to 6.5, so lime is usually not required.
To achieve top quality, berries are harvested at least every other day. The berries are picked with the caps and half the stem still attached. Strawberries need to remain on the plant until fully ripe, because they do not continue to ripen after being picked.
Domestic cultivation
Strawberries are popular in home gardens, and numerous have been selected for consumption and for exhibition purposes.
-
'Cambridge Favourite'
-
'Hapil'
-
'Honeoye' ( )
-
'Pegasus'
-
'Rhapsody'
-
'Symphony'
Pests and diseases
Over 200 species of pest arthropods attack strawberries.
Strawberry plants are subject to many diseases, especially when subjected to stress. The leaves may be infected by powdery mildew, leaf spot (caused by the fungus Sphaerella fragariae), leaf blight (caused by the fungus Phomopsis obscurans), and by a variety of . The crown and roots may fall victim to red stele, verticillium wilt, Thielaviopsis, and . The fruits are subject to damage from gray mold ( Botrytis cinerea), rhizopus rot, and leather rot.
Disease resistance and protection
The , AtNPR1, confers A. thalianas broad-spectrum resistance when transexpression in F. ananassa. This includes resistance to anthracnose, powdery mildew, and angular leaf spot.
A 1997 study found that many wound volatiles were effective against gray mold ( B. cinerea). Both Tribute and Chandler varieties benefited from the treatments, although the effects vary widely with substance and variety. Strawberry plants metabolism these volatiles, more rapidly than do either blackberry or grape.
Culinary use
Strawberries were eaten fresh with cream in the time of Thomas Wolsey in the court of King Henry VIII.
File:Strawberries and cream Wimbledon 2014.jpg|Strawberries and cream
File:Strawberry cheesecake round.jpg|Cheesecake
File:Pavlova dessert.JPG|Pavlova
File:外出し いちご大福 (35861044490).jpg|Daifuku
File:20110703-13-chocolate strawberries (5972300405).jpg|Chocolate-covered
File:Jordgubb sorbet.jpg|Sorbet
File:Gelato alla fragola e stracciatella - Sicilia, Siracusa (cropped).jpg|Ice cream
File:Home-canned strawberry jam.jpg|Jam
In art, literature and culture
The Roman poet Ovid wrote that in the past Golden Age, people had lived on wild fruits such as mountain strawberries.
The strawberry is found in Italian, Flemish, and German art, and in English miniatures.
In the work of the late medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch, strawberries feature in The Garden of Earthly Delights amongst "frolicking nude figures".
File:Oberrheinischer Meister - Madonna mit den Erdbeeren.png| Madonna of the Strawberries,
the Upper Rhenish Master, 1420–1430
File:Bosch, Hieronymus - The Garden of Earthly Delights, central panel - Detai Man eating a strawberry, Man eating a cherry, and a man bending over a fictional fruit.jpg| The Garden of Earthly Delights, man eating a strawberry (detail),
Hieronymus Bosch, 1490–1500
File:The strawberry girl.PNG| The strawberry girl,
Ammi Phillips, 1830
File:Still Life with Strawberry Basket.jpg| Still Life with Strawberry Basket,
Severin Roesen, 1860–1871
File:Strawberry gatherers (1880), by William Gunning King.jpg| Strawberry Gatherers,
William Gunning King, 1880
File:Strawberrythief.jpg|"Strawberry Thief" textile pattern,
William Morris, 1883
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1914
See also
-
Outline of strawberries
-
California Strawberry Commission
-
List of culinary fruits
-
List of strawberry dishes
-
Musk strawberry (hautbois strawberry)
-
Plant City, Florida (winter strawberry capital of the world)
-
Pineberry
-
Pomology
-
Strawberry generation
External links
