The strawberry is a red fruit from strawberries, species of herbaceous plants belonging to the genus Fragaria (Rosaceae family), of which several varieties are cultivated.
Biology, botany
This red fruit is botanically speaking a false fruit; it is actually a fleshy receptacle on which achenes are regularly placed in more or less deep alveoli. The strawberry is therefore a polyakene. Some fruits of other species unrelated to Fragaria, and by analogy of form, bear the vernacular name of "strawberry".
Strawberries are among the approximately 6% of plants that exist in both a male and a female form (and there are also both male and female forms), which was discovered by an uneducated Ohio farmer in the 1840s [ref. necessary]. It comes in three forms: male, female and combined. The female flowers do not bear anthers.
It has recently been shown that the genes that determine the sex of a strawberry plant can be positioned in several very different places in the genome (which is part of 56 chromosomes, seven of which are copied 8 times in the genome; for comparison humans have "only" 23 chromosomes).
Commercial strawberries are cultivated hybrids quite distant from wild strawberries selected according to taste, size, ease of being grown, picked, stored and transported, etc. Hydrological cultures are more and more practiced.
Description
Strawberries develop from the fleshy receptacle of flowers. They are therefore false fruits. Oval oval in shape, more or less rounded, they are red or whitish yellow depending on the variety.
In the botanical sense of the term, the "real" fruits of strawberries are in fact achenes, these small dry grains regularly arranged in more or less deep cells on strawberries. They are green to brown in color and each contain either an ovum (unfertilized) or a seed (fertilized ovum) which itself contains a germ.
The fleshy body of strawberries formed from the floral receptacle (induvia enlarged by the effect of auxins) is consumed with or without achenes. It is the achenes that produce a hormone that allows the false fruit to grow.
The weight of strawberries and achenes is linked to the cultivar, but also to the mode of pollination. Cross-pollination produces strawberries and achenes larger than the fruits obtained by self-fertilization.
Foraging bees favor cross-pollination, more than wind action or self-pollination. They make it possible to obtain larger and firmer fruits.
Strawberries are rich in vitamin C (antioxidants), vitamin A (in the form of a precursor, β-carotene, but not retinol which must be synthesized) to stimulate the immune system, in vitamin B9 (folic acid), important for pregnant women.
In addition, the strawberry is rich in fiber and low in calories.
It is rich in trace elements, in the form of potassium salts for the nervous system and against excessive sodium fixation, calcium for the bones, and magnesium against stress. [Ref. necessary] It also contains furaneol (aromatic alcohol which gives it its fragrance and taste).
Food allergies are frequently attributed to strawberries. If the strawberry can cause sometimes impressive reactions, one cannot speak about true allergy (because not mediated by IgE), this reaction being nonspecific. However, in children, it is recommended to delay the introduction of this fruit into the diet after 6 months to prevent a reaction to this fruit.