Strawberries

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Strawberries
Musk strawberry plant (Fragaria moschata)

Musk strawberry plant ( Fragaria moschata )

Systematics
Rosids
Eurosiden I
Order : Rose-like (rosales)
Family : Rose family (Rosaceae)
Subfamily : Rosoideae
Genre : Strawberries
Scientific name
Fragaria
L.
View of the fruit

The strawberries ( Fragaria ) are a genus within the subfamily of Rosoideae within the family of Rosaceae ( Rosaceae ). The genus Fragaria includes about twenty species , mostly found in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere, and various subspecies ; there are also many hybrid forms with numerous cultivars .

Strawberries have played a role in human nutrition at least since the Stone Age . The European forest strawberries ( Fragaria vesca ) were also grown extensively during the Middle Ages. It was not until the 17th and 18th centuries that the two large-fruited (and octoploid ) American species - the scarlet strawberry ( Fragaria virginiana ) and the chile strawberry ( Fragaria chiloensis ) - came to Europe. From its junction was built around 1750 in Brittany , the original form of garden strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa ), the ancestors of most cultivated varieties today.

From a botanical point of view, the pseudo-fruit of a strawberry does not count as a berry , but as a collective fruit or a collective nut or, according to another view, a collective achene fruit (achenecetum).

description

Strawberries are herbaceous plants of several years . Mostly they are soft or silky hairy, with thick, weakly woody, thread-like runners drifting "rhizome". The runners take root and form new rosettes (so-called blastochoria ). The alternate, basal, long-stalked leaves are usually fingered in three parts, less often in five parts. The stipules are attached to the base of the petiole.

Strawberries have white, rarely yellowish flowers that appear after the end of the cold spell. There are usually several in umbels at the tip of the upright arm-leaved shaft. The flower cup has five green sepals and five rounded petals . Between the actual sepals there are five other, smaller sepals (epicalyx). There are many stamens present. On the arched base of the flower sit numerous free carpels . When ripe, the flower base forms a juicy, fleshy pseudo-berry .

The fruits in the biological sense are small, yellowish to reddish, single-seeded nuts (according to another view, achenes ) on the surface of the red false fruit. The ovaries each form a nut that is moved apart by the growth of the later distinctive red flower axis during the ripening period. Animals that eat the conspicuous strawberry fruit excrete the small, hard-shelled nuts that are on the pulp, so that the nuts - provided they find suitable site conditions - can germinate (so-called endochory ). In Europe there are mammals such as red fox , badger , hedgehog , bank vole and dormouse ; Birds such as blackbird , black redstart , robin , blackcap and invertebrates such as Roman snails , some species of beetles and millipedes , which are attracted by the fruits. You are thus involved in its spread. Ants even drag the fruit into their burrows, feed the pulp to their larvae and then carry away the remaining nuts. However, the strawberry not only uses the endochory and blastochory as the mechanism of propagation . Fruits that remain on the stalks dry up after a while, with the nuts falling off. This mechanism is called barochory .

species

Strawberry blossom
The shamberry ("strawberry") with easily visible nuts

The genus Fragaria includes over 20 species and their hybrids . In all strawberry plants, the single set of chromosomes is made up of seven chromosomes , but there are differences in the degree of polyploidy . There are species and hybrids with double (diploid), fourfold (tetraploid), sixfold (hexaploid), eightfold (octoploid) and tenfold (decaploid) chromosome sets, but also hybrids with an odd number of chromosomes such as 35 in a fivefold set (pentaploid) .

diploid
tetraploid
pentaploid
hexaploid
octoploid
  • Fragaria virginiana Mill. Or Scarlet Strawberry, North America
  • Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Duchesne or chile strawberry, North and South American Pacific coast and Hawaii
  • Fragaria × ananassa subspecies cuneifolia , (F. chiloensis × virginiana) hybrid, North America
  • Fragaria × ananassa (Duchesne) Decne. & Naudin or garden strawberry, hybrid of scarlet and chile strawberry, cultivated worldwide
decaploid

The strawberry genus does not include some similar-looking and closely related species of finger herbs such as the false strawberry ( Potentilla indica ) and the strawberry cinquefoil ( Potentilla sterilis ). The strawberry trees , so called because of their fruits, belong to the heather family .

Cultural history

The strawberry basket (1760–61) by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin

From archaeological finds it can be concluded that the strawberry was already known in the Stone Age . In Latin it was called "fragum". The plant name fragaria has been traceable since the 12th century. Large areas on which small wild strawberries ( Fragaria vesca ) were grown have been proven from the Middle Ages . Methods of allowing strawberries to ripen sooner or later had also already been developed. Only the size of the fruit could not be influenced. Only in the New World were French settlers along the St. Lawrence River , a larger fruity wild type. This was in the 17th century to Europe as American scarlet strawberry introduced and initially mainly in botanical gardens cultivated. From a sea voyage to Chile in 1714 , the Frenchman Amédée-François Frézier brought back a type of strawberry already cultivated by native peoples of South America, which had rigid, leathery, blue-green leaves and, above all, very large fruits. These chile strawberries also have the peculiarity that they are dioecious , that is, there are purely male-flowering plants and purely female-flowering plants.

Around 1750, as a result of repeated, accidental crossings of the scarlet strawberry from North America ( Fragaria virginiana ) with the chile strawberry ( Fragaria chiloensis ), the large-fruited garden strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa ) was created.

Strawberry pickers near Tettnang harvest the fruits of Fragaria × ananassa

Initially cultivated in northern France and Holland , it soon increasingly replaced the previously cultivated species in England and Germany and is now commercially available in numerous cultivars around the world. In Austria and in parts of southern Germany, the particularly large-fruited cultivated forms of the strawberry are also called "pineapple" for short, and are thus differentiated from the wild strawberry, while the actual pineapple is referred to as "Hawaii pineapple". In the Burgenland Wiesen , where the main growing areas for Eastern Austria are, the strawberry is listed as "Wiesener pineapple strawberry" among the traditional foods .

Due to their ingredients, strawberries are particularly suitable food during pregnancy. If a woman has a craving for strawberries, this is understood in France as an indication of a possible pregnancy.

Art history

Hortus conclusus with strawberries, unknown master (1450)

The wild Alexander , a minstrel of the 13th century, already mentions the fruit in the so-called strawberry song (also: Hie before, do we kynder ): "Set, let's go looking for it".

Strawberries are a common motif in the fine arts. Due to their low stature, they are a symbol of humility and modesty, especially as an attribute of Jesus and, since they belong to the rose family, of the Virgin Mary . Because of the three-part leaves, they were considered a symbol of the Trinity , the five petals already stood for the five wounds of Christ on the crucifixion in the Middle Ages . The red fruiting body hanging down was symbolically interpreted as the shed blood of Christ and other martyrs. Furthermore, strawberries are the paradise plant in Christian art. Even with Ovid they appear as food of the Golden Age .

After 1902 Georg van Eyck created the very early German trademark for preserving jars , the strawberry with the company name WECK .

use

food

Filled strawberry cake

The fleshy flower base is used as a fruit . Various varieties of garden strawberries are grown commercially . Strawberries are among the non-climacteric fruits : If they are picked when they are not ripe, they will not ripen.

The shelf life is only a few days, which is why a relatively high proportion is marketed directly . Strawberries should only be washed immediately before consumption.

The fruits can be eaten raw, also as a fruit salad , if necessary with sugar and a portion of whipped cream , or they can be used as a topping for a cake . It is also common to make strawberry jam or add it to ice cream or fruit yoghurt . Among other things, the use for punch or rum pot is known . They are also offered as canned or frozen food .

Ornamental plant

The ornamental strawberries with pink flowers are genus hybrids of a strawberry and the swamp blood-eye ( Potentilla palustris ). These hybrids are decaploid (eight sets of chromosomes from the strawberry and two from the swamp blood-eye).

Economical meaning

Market supply
with strawberries in Germany 		2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Harvest in tons 157,000 154,000 156,000 150,000 169,000 173,000 143,000 135,000 142,000
Imports in tons 104,000 103,000 117,000 113,000 105,000 101,000 116,000 108,000 103,000

Source: Statista.com According to the FAO, 8,337,098 tons of strawberries were harvested worldwide in 2018 . The world's ten largest producers together harvested 81.9% of the total in 2018. The values ​​for Germany , Austria and Switzerland are given for comparison.

Biggest Producers (2018)
rank country Quantity
(in t )
1 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China 2,955,453
2 United StatesUnited States United States 1,296,272
3 MexicoMexico Mexico 653,639
4th TurkeyTurkey Turkey 440,968
5 EgyptEgypt Egypt 362,639
6th SpainSpain Spain 344,679
7th Korea SouthSouth Korea South Korea 213.054
8th RussiaRussia Russia 199,000
9 PolandPoland Poland 195,578
10 JapanJapan Japan 163,486
...
12 GermanyGermany Germany 141,693
35 AustriaAustria Austria 10,878
40 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland 9.323

According to the EU's marketing regulations, strawberries must be at least 18 mm in size for retailers to sell to consumers. For the "Extra" category, they must be over 25 mm. Sometimes even 30 mm are required by retailers. This fact and the competition from abroad mean that several thousand tons of strawberries are not harvested in Germany every year.

The self-sufficiency rate for strawberries in Germany was 55 percent in 2019 and just under 61 percent in 2018

Common names

The other German-language trivial names exist or existed for strawberries : Elber ( Aachen ), Aardbeeren ( Unterweser ), Aelberte, Albeere, Arbern ( Fallersleben , Göttingen ), Arpel (based on the fruit of Göttingen), Baschierper ( Transylvania ), Rote Besinge ( Mark Brandenburg ), Büschierpern (Transylvania), Ebbeere ( St. Gallen ) Eberi ( Switzerland ), Ebern (Switzerland), Erbeern ( Holstein ), Eerbier ( Mecklenburg ), Elberken, Erbel ( Swabia , Darmst. A. Eifel ), Erbeer ( Middle High German ), Erber ( Augsburg , Middle High German), Erbere (Middle High German), Erbern (Middle High German), Erbir (Middle High German), Erbirbaum (Middle High German), Erdbeeri ( Bern ), Erdberenboem (already mentioned in 1507), Erdbese ( Middle Low German ), Erdbier ( Middle High German), Erdbeeren ( Alsace ), Erpber (Middle High German), Erpeln ( Waldeck ), Erper (Middle High German), Erpern (Middle High German), Erperstaud (Middle High German), Erpher (Middle High German), Erpir (Middle High German), Erpern, Errberkraut, Erthebere (Middle High German), Grasbiel ( Iglau ), hair berry, Ihrbär (Mecklenburg), Knickbeeren ( Erzgebirge ), load berry, Majuse ( Hessen am Vogelsberg ), Preschtling (sing., M.) ( Württemberg ), Roaper ( Carinthia ), Ropperen, Rotber ( Old High German ), Rotbere (Old High German), Rotpir (Old High German) and Rothbeere ( Austria , Bavaria , Tyrol , Krain ).

Strawberry symbolism around the world

The strawberry was also an attribute of many ancient goddesses of love, such as Frigg (Freya) or Venus . In popular belief, strawberries were therefore often a symbol of sexual pleasure, an expression of sensuality and thus also the temptation to “sin”. The term strawberry mouth alludes to the lips drawn together for a kiss, for example in the ballad I am so wild for your strawberry mouth .

Others

A batch of frozen strawberries from China has been linked to the 2012 norovirus outbreak .

literature

  • Siegfried Schlosser, Lutz Reichhoff, Peter Hanelt and others: Wild plants of Central Europe. DLV, 1991, ISBN 3-331-00301-8 .
  • Leo Fox, John Langley, Torkild Hinrichsen : The strawberry, seduction in red. Cultural history of a fruit from the Vierlanden . Husum Druck, Husum 2001, ISBN 3-89876-002-2 .
  • Li Chaoluan, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hideaki Ohba: Fragaria Linnaeus. In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven (Ed.): Flora of China . Volume 9: Pittosporaceae through Connaraceae . Science Press, Beijing 2003, ISBN 1-930723-14-8 , pp. 335 ( online , accessed August 26, 2016).

Web links

Commons : Fragaria  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Strawberry  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

References and comments

  1. ↑ George Darrow (Ed.): The Strawberry. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1966, p. 38. ( online ; PDF; 12.2 MB).
  2. ^ A b Peter Hanelt, Johannes Helm, Joachim Kruse: Urania plant kingdom. Flowering plants 1 . Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-332-00496-4 , p. 18, 19 .
  3. ^ Michael G. Simpson: Plant Systematics. Academic Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-12-644460-5 , p. 386.
  4. ↑ K. Hummer, N. Bassil, W. Njuguna: Fragaria. In: C. Kole (Ed.): Wild Crop Relatives: Genomic and Breeding Resources: Temperate Fruits. Volume 6, Chapter 2, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-16057-8 , p. 17 f.
  5. ↑ Willem F. Daems, Mientje Daems, Gundolf Keil : Euphrasia. Contributions to the medieval pharmacology of eyebright and strawberry. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 14, 1996, p. 258.
  6. ↑ Pineapple. In: Austrian dictionary.
  7. ↑ Wiesener Pineapple Strawberry . Entry no. 136 in the register of traditional foods of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism . Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  8. ↑ everyday life: strawberries and sour cucumbers ARTE , Karambolage 281, November 18, 2012.
  9. ↑ Der Wilde Alexander, ›Hie bevorn, do wir kynder were‹ (J 30–36) , in the poetry of the German Middle Ages .
  10. ↑ Udo Becker: Lexicon of symbols . Nikol Verlag, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86820-139-0 , pp. 73 .
  11. ↑ The history of the WECK company. (PDF) p. 6, accessed on December 18, 2014.
  12. ↑ statista.com: Domestic production and imports of strawberries in Germany from 2008 to 2018 (in 1,000 tons) ; accessed on August 4, 2019.
  13. ↑ a b Crops> Strawberries. In: FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Jost Maurin: Food waste with strawberries: Thrown away because "too ugly" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 23, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( online [accessed September 25, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Der Sonntag (Karlsruhe), April 19, 2020, p. 7.
  16. ↑ No good harvest The weather makes the strawberry harvest poor. In: Baden's latest news . June 22, 2019, accessed April 22, 2020 .
  17. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 153, archive.org .
  18. ↑ Gerd Heinz-Mohr: Lexicon of symbols. 7th edition. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, ISBN 978-3-424-00702-2 , Cologne 1983, p. 91.
  19. ↑ Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: Norovirus Outbreak 2012 , on bfr.bund.de, March 2020.