Some interesting facts you may not know! –
Strawberries were originally cultivated in ancient Rome Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin – needless to say, she did not bathe daily. The American Indians were already eating strawberries when the Colonists arrived. The crushed berries were mixed with cornmeal and baked into strawberry bread. After trying this bread, Colonists developed their own version of the recipe and Strawberry Shortcake was created. The strawberry, as we know it, was originally grown in northern Europe, but species are also found in Russia, Chile, and the United States. The berries seem to be strewn among the leaves of the plant. The plant first had the name strewberry, which later was changed to strawberry. In France, strawberries were cultivated in the 13th Century for use as a medicinal herb. Historical Medicinal Uses of Fragaria Vesca (Alpine Strawberry): It is said that the leaves, roots and fruits of this variety of strawberry were used for a digestive or skin tonic. Internally, the berry was used for diarrhoea and digestive upset, while the leaves and the roots were used for gout. Externally, it was used for sunburn and skin blemishes, and the fruit juice was used for discoloured teeth. Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will fall in love with each other. The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of Love, because of its heart shapes and red color. The first documented botanical illustration of a strawberry plant appeared as a figure in Herbaries in 1454.
: Strawberry Facts,History and Origin & Other Details at Queensland.
Contents
How did strawberries evolve?
Cultivated strawberry emerged from the hybridization of two wild octoploid species, both descendants from the merger of four diploid progenitor species into a single nucleus more than 1 million years ago.
When did berries come to Europe?
History – Berries have been valuable as a food source for humans since before the start of agriculture, and remain among the primary food sources of other primates. They were a seasonal staple for early hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, and wild berry gathering remains a popular activity in Europe and North America today.
In time, humans learned to store berries so that they could be used in the winter. They may be made into fruit preserves, and among Native Americans, mixed with meat and fats as pemmican, Berries also began to be cultivated in Europe and other countries. Some species of blackberries and raspberries of the genus Rubus have been cultivated since the 17th century, while smooth-skinned blueberries and cranberries of the genus Vaccinium have been cultivated in the United States for over a century.
In Japan, between the 10th and 18th centuries, the terms ichibigo and ichigo referred to many berry crops. The most widely cultivated berry of modern times, however, is the strawberry, which is produced globally at twice the amount of all other berry crops combined.
The strawberry was mentioned by ancient Romans, who thought it had medicinal properties, but it was then not a staple of agriculture. Woodland strawberries began to be grown in French gardens in the 14th century. The musk strawberry ( F. moschata ), also known as the hautbois strawberry, began to be grown in European gardens in the late 16th century.
Later, the Virginia strawberry was grown in Europe and the United States. The most commonly consumed strawberry, the garden strawberry ( F. ananassa ), is an accidental hybrid of the Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety Fragaria chiloensis, It was first noted by a French gardener around the mid 18th century that, when F.
- Moschata and F.
- Virginiana were planted in between rows of F.
- Chiloensis, the Chilean strawberry would bear abundant and unusually large fruits.
- Soon after, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of strawberry.
Later, in the early 1800s, English breeders of strawberry made varieties of F. ananassa which were important in strawberry breeding in Europe, and hundreds of cultivars have since been produced through the breeding of strawberries.
Why do strawberries have 8 copies of DNA?
Uncovering the origins of the cultivated strawberry Until now, little has been known about the evolutionary origins of the cultivated garden strawberry. Whereas most species, including humans, are diploid with two copies of the genome – one copy from each parent – strawberry is an octoploid, with eight complete copies of the genome that were contributed by multiple, distinct parental species.
- In a new study published in Nature Genetics, researchers now unveil how the strawberry became an octoploid, as well as the genetics that determine important fruit quality traits.
- What researchers uncovered is a complex evolutionary history that started long ago on opposite sides of the world.
- For the first time, analysis of the genome enabled us to identify all four extant relatives of the diploid species that sequentially hybridized to create the octoploid strawberry,” said Patrick Edger, MSU assistant professor of horticulture and co-author on the paper.
“It’s a rich history that spans the globe, ultimately culminating in the fruit so many enjoy today.” These four diploid species are native to Europe, Asia and North America, but the wild octoploids are almost exclusively distributed across the Americas.
The results presented in the paper suggest a series of intermediate polyploids, tetraploid and hexaploid that formed in Asia, prior to the octoploid event that occurred in North America, involving the hexaploid and a diploid species endemic to Canada and the United States. This makes the strawberry relatively unique as one of only three high-value fruit crops native to the continent.
Breeders began propagating these octoploids around 300 years ago. Since then, they have been used around the world to further enhance variety development. However, Edger hypothesized that — as with several other polyploids — an unbalanced expression of traits contributed by each diploid parental species, called subgenome dominance, would likely also be present in the octoploid strawberry.
- He was right.
- We uncovered that one of the parental species in the octoploid is largely controlling fruit quality and disease resistance traits,” Edger said.
- Nowing this, as well having identified the genes controlling various target traits, will be helpful in guiding and accelerating future breeding efforts in this important fruit crop.” The genomic discoveries provided by this study will advance the trait selection process, bringing about a more precise method of breeding for this important worldwide crop.
The genome will enable studies that were previously unthinkable in strawberry, and will be a catalyst for tackling difficult breeding and genetics questions. “Without the genome we were flying blind,” said Steven Knapp, UC-Davis plant scientist and study co-author.
- I remember the first time I saw a visualization of the assembled genome, which went from a complex jumble of DNA molecules of 170 billion nucleotides to an organized and ordered string of 830 million base pairs.
- That was a special moment that changed everything for us in strawberry.” Knapp said that, historically, scientists studying complex biological phenomena in strawberry have tended to focus on diploid relatives because of the complexity of the octoploid, even though genetic analyses in the octoploid are actually straightforward once one has a good road map.
“We have been on a crusade to shift the focus in the basic research community to the commercially important octoploid,” Knapp said. “The wild octoploid ancestors, together with cultivated strawberry, provide a wellspring of natural genetic diversity to support biological and agricultural research.” Traditional breeding has been highly successful in strawberry, yielding outstanding modern cultivars that have been the catalyst for expanding production worldwide.
- As with other crops, many challenges remain that will require breeders to continually redesign cultivars and introduce genes from wild species and other exotic sources to meet new challenges.
- The genome is an essential vehicle for applying predictive, genome-informed approaches in strawberry breeding and cultivar development.
For the U.S., improved varieties could provide a boon to an already-thriving business. The U.S. is the global leader in strawberry production, a yield comprising roughly one-third of the world’s total. In 2016, the country produced more than 1.5 million tons.
The sequencing and analysis of the cultivated strawberry genome, exposing a wealth of new information about its origin and traits, is the product of an international team supported by MSU AgBioResearch, UC Davis, the United States Department of Agriculture, the California Strawberry Commission and the National Science Foundation.
(Note for media: Please include a link to the original paper in online coverage: ) : Uncovering the origins of the cultivated strawberry
What did the original strawberry look like?
Did you know the original strawberry is white? “Tastes like strawberries, on a summer evening,” sings the Century’s eminent heartthrob Harry Styles in his produce-inspired hit song Watermelon Sugar, “I want more berries,” he chants, then proceeds to devour slice after slice of watermelon.
Clearly, Mr Styles has a penchant for deep-red fruits. Or does he? Styles, like most, would perhaps be aghast to learn that strawberries are due to some strict definitions. But watermelons are, so it seems he still got his wish. And before you get bogged down on that one, here’s another fact: strawberries were once white (and some were even yellow).
Boom! ‘How now?’ you ask. It involves wild plants in southern Chile, a long boat ride to Brittany, and a French garden. “The modern strawberry emerged in Brest, France, in 1766,” Cecilia Céspedes tells SBS Food. She works as an agroecological researcher for the Chilean government agency INIA.
- While France is where the strawberry was cultivated, it’s not where it originated.
- It was a cross of fragaria virginiana from the United States with fragaria chiloensis, which is why it’s known as ‘F.
- Chiloensis x F.
- Virginiana’,” Céspedes explains.
- It was this latter variety from South America that really shakes things up, since it was white.
The Spaniards, in their exploration and conquest of Chile, wrote extensively of this incredible fruit they saw cultivating abundantly. They commented on its intense aroma, large size, and off-white hue, and considered it to be far superior to the strawberry variety they had back home.
- They were so captivated that one Frenchman decided to take five of the white fruits with him back to Europe — no easy task given the length of such a journey.
- “He gave two to the captain of the boat in exchange for the freshwater needed to water the strawberries, one to a minister and one to a professor to plant in France and the final one he left in the port of Brest,” Céspedes says.
- It was there that Chile’s white strawberry would be cross-cultivated with the North American variety to form the strawberry we know today, consumed and venerated world-over — not just by British pop stars.
COOK UP STRAWBERRIES WITH ADAM LIAW While it makes for a great story, the odyssey of those five strawberries in 1714 inadvertently led to the demise of the white strawberry in Chile, as the red type was commercialised. Before this, the white ones were eaten widely by the Indigenous Mapuche people long before the arrival of Europeans and are today considered a strong symbol of culture and heritage.
They also taste better. “The fruit of fragaria chiloensis stands out for its great sweetness and aroma compared to the commercial strawberry,” Céspedes says. Even though one would be very hard pressed to find them on the shelf of a Chilean supermarket, Indigenous groups, particularly from the Nahuelbuta territory in the south, work to keep their precious strawberries growing.
The local municipality of Contulmo puts on a White Strawberry Festival every year to promote white strawberry cultivation, consumption and culture. Céspedes authored a report titled Rescue and valuation of the white strawberry with support from the Chilean government to raise awareness of its scarcity.
For the growers, farming these strawberries is a labour of love. “Despite low yields owing to climate change, exploitation of the lands and water shortages, farmers continue their cultivation”, she explains. Although a kilo of red strawberries sells for $1.90, their white predecessors go for upwards of $45.
Despite this, there’s hope that Chile’s love for berries will help create a boutique market for the endemic Chilean fruit. “In Chile, you can find strawberries in all sorts of food and drinks,” explains Daniela Prado Frugone, a Chilean masseuse who has lived in Australia for seven years.
” many strawberry desserts we enjoy in Chile, like strawberry kuchen (cakes introduced to Chile by German migrants), marmalades, cheesecakes and bavarois.” “Being originally from central Chile and having lived in different countries, I must say Chilean strawberries are the best in the world.” Traditional white strawberry recipes also continue to be popular.
“The farmers in Nahuelbuta prepare strawberries with toasted corn flour as well as strawberry juices,” says Céspedes. The popular ‘borgoña’, a strawberry-infused wine cocktail, has become a national drink and is commonplace during celebrations on Chile’s national day.
- The land lends itself to bountiful production of the fruit, helping make it a popular snack and addition to dishes.
- With an insatiable appetite, optimal growing conditions and a strong list of strawberry dishes, the scope for popularising the white strawberry again is promising.
- Perhaps even Harry Styles would be happy to lend a hand.
BERRY TASTY RECIPES : Did you know the original strawberry is white?
What fruit is native to Europe?
The Origin of Cultivated Fruits and Vegetables
| Source | Fruits | Vegetables |
|---|---|---|
| Europe (Western) | Turnip | |
| Europe (Eastern) | Apple | Endive Lettuce |
| Pear | Horseradish | |
| Africa | Date | Artichoke |
What is the oldest berry?
History – Cucurbit berries or pepos, particularly from Cucurbita and Lagenaria, are the earliest plants known to be domesticated – before 9,000–10,000 BP in the Americas, and probably by 12,000–13,000 BP in Asia. Peppers were domesticated in Mesoamerica by 8,000 BP.
Many other early cultivated plants were also berries by the strict botanical definition, including grapes, domesticated by 8,000 BP and known to have been used in wine production by 6,000 BP. Bananas were first domesticated in Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia, Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence at Kuk Swamp in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 7,000 BP, and possibly to 10,000 BP.
The history of cultivated citrus fruit remains unclear, although some recent research suggests a possible origin in Papuasia rather than continental southeast Asia. Chinese documents show that mandarins and pomelos were established in cultivation there by around 4,200 BP.
Where does Europe get its fruit from?
Spotlight on Southern Hemisphere Fruit – The most important produce suppliers of the EU are countries in the Southern Hemisphere, which benefit from having a sales season different than that of EU producers. With a little overlap of seasons, oranges are the most significant imported product into the EU, arriving from the Southern Hemisphere between July and November.
Did the Romans think strawberries cured bad breath?
Strawberry Historical Facts: –
Strawberries are thought to have been cultivated in ancient Rome. The strawberry, as we know it, was originally grown in northern Europe, but species are also found in Russia, Chile, and the United States. The berries seem to be strewn among the leaves of the plant. The plant first had the name strewberry, which later was changed to strawberry, In France strawberries were cultivated in the 13th Century for useas a medicinal herb. Historical Medicinal Uses of Fragaria Vesca (Alpine Strawberry): It is said that the leaves, roots and fruits of this variety of strawberry were used for a digestive or skin tonic. Internally, the berry was used for diarrhoea and digestive upset, while the leaves and the roots were used for gout. Externally, it was used for sunburn and skin blemishes, and the fruit juice was used for discoloured teeth. The first American species of strawberries was cultivated about 1835. The first important American variety, the Hoveg, was grown in 1834, in Massachusetts. The hybrid variety was developed in France. The strawberry is considered one of the most important small fruits grown in the Western Hemisphere. Today every state in the United States and every province in Canada grows the strawberry plant.
Strawberry Horticulture Facts:
The strawberry is a small plant of the Rosaceae (Rose) family. All varieties of the strawberry plant belong to the Fragaria genus. It grows both as a wild plant and as a cultivated plant. Some strawberries, called everbearing, produce berries throughout the summer and fall. Strawberry plants can be planted in any garden soil. But the richer the soil, the larger the crop. The plant grows best in a cool, moist climate and does not do well in warm temperatures. The plants may be planted in the spring or fall, but if the temperature is too cold, fall planting requires a great deal of care. The strawberry grows close to the ground on the stem in groups of three. The greenish white fruits turn to a rich red colour when they ripen. When the strawberry ripens, the petals of the flower fall off and all that remains is the calyx, a leafy substance shaped like a star. Not every flower produces fruit. Strawberries are not really berries or fruit in the “botanical” sense (i.e., the end result of a fertilized plant ovum). A strawberry is actually an “aggregate fruit” – the “real” fruit are the objects we think of as the “strawberry seed” – properly called “achenes” – which are fruits in the same way that a raw sunflower seed with it’s tough shell is a fruit. The “berry” is actually an “enlarged receptacle” and is not reproductive material. As a result, strawberries must be picked at full ripeness, as they cannot not ripen once picked. The strawberry plant has seeds on the outside skin rather than having an outer skin around the seed, as most berries do. They do not however, normally reproduce by seeds. When the fruit is developing, the plant sends out slender growths called runners. These look like strings. They grow on the ground and send out roots in the soil. The roots produce new plants which grow and bear fruit. Sometimes these plants are taken from the soil and replanted to start a new plantation of strawberry plants.
Ancient Medical Uses: The roots, leaves, and fruits of the Alpine Strawberry, Fragaria Vesca, were used as a digestive aid and skin tonic. The berry was prescribed for diarrhea and digestive upset, while the leaves and roots were supposed to relievie gout.
- The berry itself was rubbed on the skin to ease the pain of sunburn and to relieve blemishes.
- The juice of the strawberry has its own special prescription-it brightened discolored teeth.
- The ancient Romans were staunch believers in the curative powers of the strawberry.
- They believed it relieved melancholy and masked bad breath.
According to the ancients, strawberries could cure inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, gout, fainting spells, and diseases of the blood, liver, and spleen. Interesting Strawberry Facts:
“Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.” (Dr. William Butler, 17 th Century English Writer) Dr. Butler is referring to the strawberry. Strawberries are the best of the berries. The delicate heart-shaped berry has always connoted purity, passion and healing. It has been used in stories, literature and paintings through the ages. In Othello, Shakespeare decorated Desdemonda’s handkerchief with symbolic strawberries. Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin, needless to say, she did not bathe daily. In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and abundance of milk in return. The American Indians were already eating strawberries when the Colonists arrived. The crushed berries were mixed with cornmeal and baked into strawberry bread. After trying this bread, Colonists developed their own version of the recipe and Strawberry Shortcake was created. In Greek and Roman times, the strawberry was a wild plant. The English “strawberry” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “streoberie” not spelled in the modern fashion until 1538. The first documented botanical illustration of a strawberry plant appeared as a figure in Herbaries in 1454. In 1780, the first strawberry hybrid “Hudson” was developed in the United States. Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will fall in love with each other. The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of Love, because of its heart shapes and red color. Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII had a strawberry shaped birthmark on her neck, which some claimed proved she was a witch. To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals. The wide distribution of wild strawberries is largely from seeds sown by birds. It seems that when birds eat the wild berries the seeds pass through them intact and in reasonably good condition. The germinating seeds respond to light rather than moisture and therefore need no covering of earth to start growing.
Interesting Stawberry Links: http://www.museums.org.za/bio/plants/rosaceae/fragaria.htm http://www.nalusda.gov/pgdic/Strawberry/ers/ers.htm http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch45.html http://www.dobrev.com/ UMMMMMMMMMM!!
When did strawberries come to France?
Today’s strawberry, Fragaria ananassa, with its large, practically perfect berries is the culmination of selective breeding going back centuries to when strawberries were tiny, rare, and found only at the peak of summer. Strawberries are mentioned in works by Virgil and Ovid, yet they made no appearance in ancient Roman cookbooks. By the 14th century, the tiny European wood strawberry ( Fragaria vesca ) was being cultivated in France, Italy, and England. Meanwhile, throughout North America, tribes such as the Chippewa and the Mescalero Apache used strawberries.
One method was to add them to cornbread—the future strawberry shortcake. In the early 1600s, English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, found abundant wild strawberries underfoot—”much fairer and more sweete than ours.” The subsequent arrival in Europe of the Virginia strawberry ( Fragaria americana) marked the beginning of cross-breeding attempts that would ultimately bring us the precursor to the modern berry about 150 years later, according to George M.
Darrow’s The Strawberry: History, Breeding, and Physiology, In 1714, a French explorer, spy, mapmaker, and engineer named Amédée François Frézier brought a larger New World strawberry ( Fragaria chiloensis ) to France from Chile, where the natives had cultivated it. “There they plant whole fields, with a sort of strawberry rushes, differing from ours, in that the leaves are rounder, thicker, and more downy.
The fruit is generally as big as a walnut, and sometimes as a hen’s egg, of a whitish red, and somewhat less delicious of taste than our wood strawberries,” wrote Frézier, whose name comes from the French word for strawberry, fraise, Back in France, he and other botanical experimenters discovered they could cross it with the Virginia variety, leading to the birth of the modern strawberry.
French royalty took up the new strawberry ingénue with the aplomb and opulence that were hallmarks of their regime. King Louis XV planted blocks of strawberries, and court ladies bathed in gallons of the crushed fruit. Strawberry breeding and cultivation continued to evolve in France, England, and the U.S.
By the 1830s, strawberries sold in New York City were grown in the farmlands of Hackensack, New Jersey, and brought over on sailing sloops “when wind and tide permitted.” The season lasted about three weeks, and a half a pint of berries cost around 7 cents. The ensuing years have been a steady race to develop the best, biggest, juiciest, and most shippable strawberries that appeal to popular taste.
The result is a berry well removed from the hardy strawberry fields of colonial Virginia where crops were so resilient they would return again and again to areas where Native Americans had burned the fields after harvesting corn and colonists had chopped down the forests to build houses.
Everyone loves strawberries, including pests, weeds, and fungi. The modern cultivated strawberry grows in pampered isolation. Farmers plant the berries in a little hole on top of sculpted mounds of earth covered in cloth or plastic to suppress any nearby weeds. The use of chemicals in farming began as early as 1880.
Delicate strawberries have prospered; production has increased 300 percent since 1960. Organic strawberries are grown without chemical pesticides or herbicides. Instead, farmers use soil solarization (exposing the soil to heat and sun to kill pathogens) and crop rotation to manage the environment for the strawberries (see The FruitGuys Almanac ” How Broccoli Will Save Strawberries: Organic Farming Practices Leave Pesticides Aside “).
Organic practices take more effort and result in slightly smaller harvests than conventional pesticide production. Strawberries are so delicate they must be handpicked. They are vulnerable to cold and weather damage—even raindrops can bruise them. New varieties continue to be developed to suit our favor (and flavor); there are no heirloom strawberry varieties per se—just ones no longer in vogue.
_ Note: The FruitGuys delivers only organic strawberries and always has since its founding in 1998. Heidi Lewis writes about farms, bees, and fruit from her home in Sonoma County, CA. She’s been with The FruitGuys since they were FruitKids.