''Fragaria'' () is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

family,

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

, commonly known as strawberries for their edible

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

s. There are more than 20 described

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

and many hybrids and

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s. The most common strawberries grown commercially are cultivars of the

garden strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated ...

, 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

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

s and therefore the true botanical fruits.

Etymology

The genus name derives from ("

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

") and , 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 Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Eu ...

root meaning "

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ...

", either ''*dʰreh₂ǵ-'' or ''*sróh₂gs''. The semantic motivation behind the English name "strawberry" (from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''strēawberie'') 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 The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...

, which instead use words meaning "earth berry".

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. One key to the classification of strawberry species is that they vary in the number of

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

s. They all have seven basic ''types'' of chromosomes, but exhibit different

polyploidy Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

. 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. The oldest fossils confidently classifiable as ''Fragaria'' are from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of Poland. Fossilised ''Fragaria'' achenes are also known from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 Fragaria viridis fruit - Keila

* ''Fragaria'' × ''bifera'' Duchesne - ''F. vesca'' × ''F. viridis'' (Europe) *''

Fragaria bucharica ''Fragaria'' () 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 com ...

'' Losinsk. (China) *'' Fragaria chinensis'' Losinsk (China) *''

Fragaria daltoniana ''Fragaria daltoniana'' is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Rosaceae''. It is a strawberry native to the Himalayas. Its fruit has a poor flavor, and is of no commercial value.

'' J.Gay (Himalayas) * '' Fragaria emeiensis'' Jia J. Lei (China) *'' Fragaria gracilis'' Losinsk. (China) *'' Fragaria hayatae'' Makino (Taiwan) *'' Fragaria iinumae'' Makino (East Russia, Japan) *'' Fragaria mandshurica'' Staudt (China) *'' Fragaria nilgerrensis'' Schlecht. ex J.Gay (

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

) *'' Fragaria nipponica'' Makino (Korea, Japan) *'' Fragaria nubicola'' Lindl. ex Lacaita (

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

) *'' Fragaria pentaphylla'' Losinsk. (China) *''

Fragaria vesca ''Fragaria vesca'', commonly called the wild strawberry, woodland strawberry, Alpine strawberry, Carpathian strawberry or European strawberry, is a Perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plant in the Rosaceae, rose family that grows naturally thro ...

'' L. - woodland strawberry (

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

) *'' Fragaria viridis'' Duchesne (Europe, Central Asia)

Tetraploid species

* '' Fragaria corymbosa'' Losinsk. (northern China) * ''Fragaria'' × ''intermedia'' (Bach) Beck (Europe) *'' Fragaria moupinensis'' Cardot (China) *'' Fragaria orientalis'' Losinsk. (Eastern Asia, Eastern Siberia) *'' Fragaria tibetica'' Staudt & Dickoré (China)

Pentaploid hybrids

* ''Fragaria'' × ''bringhurstii'' Staudt (

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

of California)

Hexaploid species

*'' Fragaria moschata'' Duchesne - musk strawberry (Europe)

Octoploid species and hybrids

* ''Fragaria'' × ''ananassa'' Duchesne ex Rozier - garden strawberry, pineapple strawberry *'' Fragaria chiloensis'' ( L.) Mill. - beach strawberry (Western

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

) **''Fragaria chiloensis'' subsp. ''chiloensis'' forma ''chiloensis'' **''Fragaria chiloensis'' subsp. ''chiloensis'' forma ''patagonica'' (

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

) **''Fragaria chiloensis'' subsp. ''lucida'' (E. Vilm. ex Gay) Staudt (

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Washington,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) **''Fragaria chiloensis'' subsp. ''pacifica'' Staudt (coast of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California) **''Fragaria chiloensis'' subsp. ''sandwicensis'' ( Decne.) Staudt - ''ōhelo papa'' (

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

) *'' Fragaria virginiana'' Mill. - Virginia strawberry (

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

)

Decaploid species and hybrids

*'' Fragaria cascadensis'' K.E. Hummer (Cascade Mountains in

) *'' Fragaria iturupensis'' Staudt - Iturup strawberry ( Iturup,

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

) * ''Fragaria'' × ''Comarum'' hybrids *'' Fragaria × vescana''

Polyploidy unknown

* '' Fragaria tayulinensis'' S.S.Ying (Taiwan)

Uncategorized hybrids

*'Lipstick' (''Fragaria'' × ''Comarum'' hybrid), red-flowered runnering ornamental, sparse small globular fruits. *''

'' and certain other diploid species can be hybridized and produce fertile offspring (although '' Fragaria nilgerrensis'' appears less compatible). *'' Fragaria moschata'' can hybridize with diploid species such as '' Fragaria viridis'' and '' Fragaria nubicola'' but producing a lower proportion of viable seeds. *'' Fragaria moschata'' can hybridize with ''Fragaria'' × ''ananassa''.

Ecology

A number of species of

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

and

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s feed on strawberry plants.

References

External links

Species records in the database (for the query: genus = ''Fragaria'')
from the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System website {{Authority control Berries Stoloniferous plants Rosaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus