''Fragaria virginiana'', known as Virginia strawberry, wild strawberry, common strawberry, or mountain strawberry, is a North American strawberry that grows across much of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is one of the two species of wild strawberry that were hybridized to create the modern domesticated

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 ...

(''Fragaria'' × ''ananassa'').

Description

''Fragaria virginiana'' can grow up to tall. The plant typically bears numerous

trifoliate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets ...

leaves that are green on top, pale green on the lower surface. Each leaflet is about 10'' ''cm (4'' ''in) long and wide. The leaflet is oval shaped and has coarse teeth along the edge except near the bottom. This plant has a five-

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

ed white flower with numerous

pistil Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists ...

s, surrounded by yellow-anthered

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s. There are ten small green

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s under the petals. The seeds of this plant are developed from the pistils in the centre of the flower which will become dark-coloured fruit (

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) on the strawberry. The fruit of the wild strawberry is smaller than that of the garden strawberry (''Fragaria × ananassa''). Botanically, the fruit is classified as an aggregate

accessory fruit An accessory fruit is a fruit that contains tissue derived from plant parts other than the Ovary (botany), ovary. In other words, the flesh of the fruit develops not from the floral ovary, but from some adjacent tissue exterior to the carpel (f ...

, but it is commonly called a berry. Strawberries reproduce both sexually by seed, and asexually by runners (

stolons In biology, a stolon ( from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal stolons ar ...

Cytology

All strawberries have a base

haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the num ...

count of 7

chromosomes 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 importa ...

. ''Fragaria virginiana'' is

octoploid 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 ...

, having eight sets of these chromosomes for a total of 56. These eight genomes pair as four distinct sets, of two different types, with little or no pairing between sets. The genome composition of the octoploid strawberry species has generally been indicated as AAA'A'BBB'B'. The A-type genomes were likely contributed by diploid ancestors related to ''

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 ...

'' or similar species, while the B-type genomes seem to descend from a close relative of ''

Fragaria iinumae ''Fragaria iinumae'' is a species of strawberry native to Japan and eastern Russia. In Japan it was first discovered on and the name was given. All strawberries have a base haploid count of 7 chromosomes. ''Fragaria iinumae'' is diploid, havi ...

''. The exact process of hybridization and speciation which resulted in the octoploid species is still unknown, but it appears that the genome compositions of both ''

Fragaria chiloensis ''Fragaria chiloensis'', the beach strawberry, Chilean strawberry, or coastal strawberry, is one of two species of wild strawberry that were hybridized to create the modern garden strawberry (''F. × ananassa''). It is native to the Pacific Oce ...

'' and ''Fragaria virginiana'' (and by extension their hybrid, the cultivated octoploid

as well) are identical.

Similar species

The plants resemble '' Hesperochiron pumilus'', but have distinct leaves and more than five stamens.

Taxonomy

''Fragaria virginiana'' Mill. is considered to be the valid name for this plant by a number of authorities (and was described by

Philip Miller Philip Miller Royal Society, FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botany, botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ...

in 1768 in the eighth edition of ''The Gardeners Dictionary)''. According to the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

the name, ''Fragaria virginiana'' Duchesne, published by

Antoine Nicolas Duchesne Antoine Nicolas Duchesne (born 7 October 1747 Versailles (city), Versailles; died 18 February 1827 Paris) was a French botanist known for his keen observation of variation within species, and for demonstrating that species are not immutable, becaus ...

in 1766, is an invalid name. However, other authorities consider the valid name to be ''Fragaria virginiana'' Duchesne.

Subspecies

There are four recognized subspecies: :*''Fragaria virginiana'' subsp. ' (formerly known as ''F. ovalis'') :*''Fragaria virginiana'' subsp. ''grayana'' :*''Fragaria virginiana'' subsp. ''platypetala'' :*''Fragaria virginiana'' subsp. ''virginiana''

Uses

The berries are edible. A popular type called " Little Scarlet" is grown in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, having been imported from the

in the early 1900s.

In culture

According to

Iroquois mythology The History of the Haudenosaunee includes the creation stories and folktales of the Native Americans who formed the confederacy of the Five Nations Iroquois, later the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Historically, these stories were recorded ...

, the first strawberries grew out of Earth Woman's heart after she died giving birth to her twin sons, Sapling and Flint.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q978247 virginiana Flora of Northern America Plants described in 1766