Strawberries, Modern and Medieval

with notes on Calontir distributions


Agnes deLanvallei March 05


This began with a question of the relation of modern strawberries to Medieval strawberries. The answer is not simple.


Strawberries have been cultivated in Europe since the Roman era. [i] The plant that the Romans raised has the common English name of "alpine strawberry" and its scientific name is Fragaria vesca.[ii] American wild strawberries, discovered by settlers, belong to a different species, Fragaria virginiana. They "are not much larger than F. vesca but have different colour and flavour"[iii]. " This suggests that the strawberries cultivated by the Romans were not much larger than wild strawberries. Seeds of F. virginiana were taken to England by 1556 but the first certain record of F. virginica that is, growing and producing fruit--in England is 1624.[iv]


South America had a different strawberry, F. chiloensis, which Chilean Indians were cultivating when the Spaniards arrived. The Indians had different names for the wild and cultivated strawberries. The Spaniards, impressed by the fruits (in three colors, yellow, red and white), introduced them to Peru and Ecuador, where they are still grown. The Spaniards called these fruitilla. These were first introduced to Europe in 1714.[v]


Fragaria virginiana and F. chiloensis crossed accidentally at an unknown location in Europe. The hybrid, called F. ananassa, the pineapple strawberry or pine strawberry, was first described in 1759 in London. Our modern cultivated strawberries are descendants of this hybrid and are classified as F. ananassa. So, comparing them to Medieval strawberries, not only have they been bred over the last 200 years for size etc. but they are derived from two American species not known in Europe[vi]


Jones[vii] , my chief source (the other sources I consulted gave the same story with less detail[viii]), says "Fragaria vesca, the commonest wild diploid[ix], is distributed throughout north temperate Europe, Asia and America and also occurs in North Africa and South America" but that Fragaria virginiana grows in open woodlands and hill meadows in North America, from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains and from New Mexico to Alaska.


The Flora of the Great Plains[x] separates these two strawberry species as follows:


Fragaria vesca, which it gives the common name of woodland strawberry, has "terminal tooth on leaflets a little longer than on lateral ones; the achenes (seeds) on the fruit are superficial" (see contrast in other species); "inflorescence (groups of flowers) eventually (when through growing) racemiform (simple and elongated) or paniculiform" (an irregular compound group)


F. virginiana the wild strawberry: "Terminal tooth on leaflets usually shorter than adjacent lateral ones; achenes in pits on mature fruit; inflorescence becoming a corymbiform cluster" (forming a flat top, like Queen Anne's lace does).


Fragaria vesca is diploid, 2n= 14 chromosomes, F. virginiana is octoploid 2n= 56. Having more chromosomes often makes a bigger fruit (its a common breeding trick in plants) but The Flora of the Great Plains, while indicating that F. virginiana can get bigger than F. vesca, doesn't think the difference very great or reliable since it is not used in identifying the plants.[xi]


So, what is the relation of modern strawberries eaten in Calontir to Medieval strawberries?


1) years of breeding have made the cultivated strawberries much bigger. Most of Jones's article [xii] is actually about breeding in the last 100 years.


2) Modern strawberries are descended from two species, neither native to Europe, which combined in 1750s.


3) It sounds like you could gather F. vesca in Calontir if you knew where to look and can tell it from F. virginica.



NOTES




[i]J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417 In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.

[ii] See Scientific Names

[iii] J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417 In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.

[iv] J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417. In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London. I know this is excessive, but its also clear what my authority is.

[v] J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417. In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.

[vi]J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417. In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.

[vii] J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417 In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.

[viii] Other sources consulted were Beryl B. Simpson and Molly C. Ogorzaly, 2003. Economic botany 3rd ed., McGraw Hill Publishing Company, New York; James F. Hancock.1992 Plant evolution and the origin of crop species Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

[ix] Diploids have two copies of the genetic material (genome) in every cell. That is standard for mammals and birds but plants can have up to 12 copies. Increasing the number of genomes (the ?ploidy level?) often makes for bigger plants with bigger flowers and fruit, so that many crop plants are tetraploid (4 copies), hexaploid (6 copies), or as in strawberries, octoploid (8 copies).

[x] Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University Presses of Kansas, Lawrence KS. This is the definitive plant identification book for Calontir.

[xi] Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University Presses of Kansas, Lawrence KS.

[xii] J.K. Jones, 1995 Strawberry. pp.412-417 In The evolution of crop plants 2nd ed.J. Smartt and N. W. Simmonds, eds. Longman Scientific & Technical Publishers, London.