On
this date in 1806, British market gardener Michael Keens presented to
the Royal Horticultural Society the first cultivated strawberry whose
size, flavor, and color resembles today's strawberries. Apparently
almost all of our current strawberries descend from Keens's fruits. |
| A modern strawberry |
 |
| A wild strawberry |
Are
they berries?
The
botanical definition of a berry is that it is a simple fruit with
seeds and pulp that comes from a single ovary of a flower. So fruits
like blueberries and cranberries are berries.
However,
strawberries are not!
Strawberries
are called “accessory fruits.” They are unique in that the seeds
are tiny and affixed to the outside of the “fruit,” which is not
created by a flower ovary but instead by a thickened part of the
plant's stem.
(Raspberries,
blackberries, and boysenberries are also not true berries; they are
“aggregate fruits” that contain seeds from many different flower
ovaries. Some botanical berries that don't get called berries
include avocados, watermelons, pumpkins, grapes, and bananas!)
Celebrate
strawberries!
Here
are some ideas.
Also
on this date:
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