Strawberry

Article By:

Clarke, J. Harold Clarke Nursery, Long Beach, Washington.

Converse, Richard H. Department of Botany, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.

Last reviewed:August 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.659200

A low-growing perennial of the genus Fragaria and its juicy, usually red, edible fruit. The strawberry is a term that refers to a plant and its fruit. The strawberry plant is a low-growing, flowering perennial assigned to the genus Fragaria within the order Rosales that spreads by stolons (creeping stems). The strawberry fruit, which is juicy, usually red, and edible (Fig. 1), consists of a fleshy receptacle with numerous seeds in pits or nearly superficial on the receptacle. Strawberries in the Americas are derived from two species: Fragaria chiloensis, which grows along the Pacific coast of North America and South America; and F. virginiana, the eastern meadow strawberry in North America. These species were apparently crossed in Europe in the early eighteenth century, and some of the hybrid offspring were brought back to North America, where they have been crossed and recrossed until the characteristics of the original parental types are hard to identify. The resulting hybrid is termed Fragaria × ananassa, known as the garden strawberry. The European strawberry is a smaller-fruited type, usually grown from seed. See also: Fruit; Rosales; Seed; Stem

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