Fragaria


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 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. 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.

Etymology

The genus name derives from 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 root meaning "berry", either *dʰreh₂ǵ- or *sróh₂gs.
The semantic motivation behind the English name "strawberry" 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".

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 chromosomes. They all have seven basic types of chromosomes, but exhibit different polyploidy. Some species are diploid, having two sets of the seven chromosomes, but others are tetraploid, hexaploid, octoploid, or decaploid.
As a rough rule, 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 of Poland. Fossilised Fragaria achenes are also known from the Pliocene of China.

Diploid species

Image:Fragaria daltoniana.jpg|thumb|Fragaria daltoniana, a species from the Himalayas
Image:Fragaria vesca 2.jpg|thumb|Woodland strawberry, a Northern Hemisphere species
Image:Fragarianilgerrensis.jpg|thumb|Flower of Fragaria nilgerrensis, an Asian species

Tetraploid species

Fragaria corymbosa Losinsk.

Pentaploid hybrids

Hexaploid species

Octoploid species and hybrids

Decaploid species and hybrids

Polyploidy unknown

Fragaria tayulinensis S.S.Ying

Uncategorized hybrids

Ecology

A number of species of butterflies and moths feed on strawberry plants.