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fragaria

{{short description|Genus of strawberry plants}}

{{about|the plant genus|the most commonly cultivated strawberry|Strawberry}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| oldest_fossil = Miocene

| image = 103 Fragaria vesca L.jpg

| image_caption = Fragaria vesca illustration from Atlas des plantes de France 1891, by A. Masclef

| display_parents = 3

| taxon = Fragaria

| authority = L.

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = 20+ species; see text

}}

Fragaria ({{IPAc-en|f|r|ə|ˈ|ɡ|ɛər|i|.|ə}})Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995: 606–07 is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. There are more than 20 described species and many hybrids and cultivars. The most common strawberries grown commercially are cultivars of the garden strawberry, a hybrid known as Fragaria × ananassa. Strawberries have a taste that varies by cultivar, and ranges from quite sweet to rather tart. Strawberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world.

Description

Strawberries are not berries in the botanical sense.Esau, K. 1977. Anatomy of seed plants. John Wiley and Sons, New York. The fleshy and edible part of the "fruit" is a receptacle, and the parts that are sometimes mistakenly called "seeds" are achenes and therefore the true botanical fruits.E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia: [http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Fragaria%20virginiana Fragaria virginiana].

Etymology

The genus name {{lang|la|{{linktext|Fragaria}}}} derives from {{lang|la|{{linktext|fragum}}}} ("strawberry") and {{lang|la|{{linktext|-aria}}}}, a suffix used to create feminine nouns and plant names. The Latin name is thought in turn to derive from a Proto-Indo-European language root meaning "berry", either *dʰreh₂ǵ- or *sróh₂gs.{{cite book |last1=De Vaan |first1=Michiel |title=Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004167971 |page=239}}

The semantic motivation behind the English name "strawberry" (from Old English strēawberie{{Cite web |editor1-last=Bierbaumer |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Sauer |editor2-first=Hans |editor3-last=Klug |editor3-first=Helmut W. |editor4-last=Krischke |editor4-first=Ulrike |date=2011 |title=strēaw-berie |website=Dictionary of Old English Plant Names |url=http://oldenglish-plantnames.org/lemma/full_lemma/1043-str-aw-berie?fake=578900 |access-date=2025-05-27 |name-list-style=amp }}) is unclear. Various suggestions have been put forward. One is that the name derives from the old practice of gathering strawberries by stringing them on a straw or stalk. Alternatively, "straw" may refer to the long, thin runners found on members of the genus. The term is absent from the other Germanic languages, which instead use words meaning "earth berry".{{cite journal|last1=Fridell|first1=Staffan|last2=Svanberg|first2=Ingvar|date=2024|title=On the etymology of strawberry|journal=Studia Neophilologica|volume=96|issue=2|pages=303–310|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00393274.2024.2329185}}

Classification

There are more than 20 different Fragaria species worldwide. A number of other species have been proposed, some of which are now recognized as subspecies.{{cite web |url=https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomysimple.aspx?Fragaria |title=Species records in the database (for the query: genus = Fragaria) |publisher=U.S. National Plant Germplasm System |access-date=2017-08-24}} One key to the classification of strawberry species is that they vary in the number of chromosomes. They all have seven basic types of chromosomes, but exhibit different polyploidy. Some species are diploid, having two sets of the seven chromosomes (14 chromosomes total), but others are tetraploid (four sets, 28 chromosomes total), hexaploid (six sets, 42 chromosomes total), octoploid (eight sets, 56 chromosomes total), or decaploid (ten sets, 70 chromosomes total).

As a rough rule (with exceptions), strawberry species with more chromosomes tend to be more robust and produce larger plants with larger berries.Darrow, George M. The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology. New York. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. [http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Strawberry/darpubs.htm online text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826020754/http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Strawberry/darpubs.htm |date=2013-08-26 }}

The oldest fossils confidently classifiable as Fragaria are from the Miocene of Poland. Fossilised Fragaria achenes are also known from the Pliocene of China.{{Cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Yong-Jiang |last2=Zhu |first2=Hai |last3=Momohara |first3=Arata |last4=Jia |first4=Lin-Bo |last5=Zhou |first5=Zhe-Kun |date=March 2019 |title=Fruit fossils of Rosoideae (Rosaceae) from the late Pliocene of northwestern Yunnan, Southwest China |journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |language=en |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=180–189 |doi=10.1111/jse.12443 |s2cid=89751967 |issn=1674-4918|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019JSyEv..57..180H }}

=Diploid species=

Image:Fragaria daltoniana.jpg, a species from the Himalayas]]

Image:Fragaria vesca 2.jpg), a Northern Hemisphere species]]

Image:Fragarianilgerrensis.jpg, an Asian species]]

File:Sosnovka Bekovo 2014 Wild Strawberries.jpg) from Sosnovka, Penza Oblast, Russia]]

File:Fragaria viridis fruit - Keila.jpg fruit photographed in Keila, Estonia]]

=Tetraploid species=

=Pentaploid hybrids=

=Hexaploid species=

=Octoploid species and hybrids=

=Decaploid species and hybrids=

= Polyploidy unknown =

=Uncategorized hybrids=

  • 'Lipstick' (Fragaria × Comarum hybrid), red-flowered runnering ornamental, sparse small globular fruits.
  • Fragaria vesca and certain other diploid species can be hybridized and produce fertile offspring (although Fragaria nilgerrensis appears less compatible).{{cite journal |url=http://journal.ashspublications.org/content/130/3/418.full.pdf |title=Interspecific Hybridization of Fragaria vesca subspecies with F. nilgerrensis, F. nubicola, F. pentaphylla, and F. viridis |first1=R.H. |last1=Bors |first2=J.A. |last2=Sullivan |date=2005 |journal=J. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. |volume=130 |issue=3 |pages=418–423|doi=10.21273/JASHS.130.3.418 |doi-access=free }}
  • Fragaria moschata can hybridize with diploid species such as Fragaria viridis and Fragaria nubicola but producing a lower proportion of viable seeds.{{cite journal |url=http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/31/4/610.2 |title=Production of Interspecific Hybrids between Hexaploid Fragaria moschata and the diploid species F. nubicola and F. viridis. |first1=Robert H. |last1=Bors |first2=J. Alan |last2=Sullivan |date=August 1996 |journal=HortScience|volume=31|issue=4|pages=610|doi=10.21273/HORTSCI.31.4.610b |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}
  • Fragaria moschata can hybridize with Fragaria × ananassa.{{cite magazine |last=Karp |first=David |date=July 2006 |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/berried-treasure-120534521 |title=Berried Treasure |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine }}

Ecology

A number of species of butterflies and moths feed on strawberry plants.{{facts|date=June 2024}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • Hogan, Sean (chief consultant) (2003), Flora: A Gardener's Encyclopedia, Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. {{ISBN|0-88192-538-1}}.

External links

  • [https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomysimple.aspx?Fragaria Species records in the database (for the query: genus = Fragaria)] from the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System website

{{fragaria}}

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Category:Berries

Category:Stoloniferous plants

Category:Rosaceae genera

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus