Strawberry is a nut or berry and other interesting facts.
Strawberry is the most common berry, which is found on almost every garden plot. Her story begins in South America, from where it has spread throughout the world.This culture has a lot of useful properties and is used not only in cooking, but also in cosmetology. Many people wonder what strawberries are - berries or nuts? To answer it, you must carefully examine the plant.
Culture description
Strawberry got its name due to the spherical shape. The root “club” means “round”. This hybrid is much larger than its closest relative - strawberries, which, like strawberries, is a false berry.
Strawberry has a very unusual "pedigree." It is believed that it appeared due to hybridization of wild strawberry with eastern strawberry. In European forests, this plant grew more than 60 thousand years ago, which suggests that it managed to survive even the ice age. Her trail can be found in medieval England, France and Germany. It is known for certain that wild strawberries were known to the ancient Romans, who included berry in their diet.
Wild strawberries are found in the same places as strawberries. Currently, new varieties of this crop have been developed, which makes it possible to grow it even in the north. Under snow cover, frost-resistant varieties can survive temperatures below -35 ° C.
Most people attribute the fruits of strawberries to berries, but according to the scientific definition, it is a nut.
From a botanical point of view, this culture belongs to the multi-poles, because the juicy pulp contains small yellow seeds - nuts. It should be understood that the nuts are different from nuts. These nuts are characterized by a hard shell, under which is the edible part. They have nothing in common with strawberry nuts, since not only the ovary appears in the formation of strawberry fruits, but also the receptacle.
Turns out that strawberry is not a representative of the nut culture, but refers to false berries, that is, to many-holes.
Classification difficulties
Many of our usual fruits and berries are scientifically attributed to other types of crops. This is due to the fact that the designation of various fruits appeared many centuries ago, even before botanists found the exact definition of each plant. It is believed that the berries are spherical fruits of small size, with juicy flesh and growing on small bushes. However, the classification is a more in-depth definition.
Botanists have determined that the berry can be distinguished from other fruits due to the composition of three layers. The top layer is a peel, the middle is the fleshy layer, and the seeds are located inside. For example, according to this definition, a grape known to everyone is not a fruit, but a berry.
Strawberries and strawberries are of the type of fruit, which is called "multi-webs", as the seeds are on the surface of the receptacle. They differ from the seeds in that nuts are not formed in the lower ovary, but on the surface of the fruit. Despite the scientific definition, strawberries are not required to be called a nut. Botanical classification does not prevent this culture to remain a berry.
We used to classify various plants in the usual way. Modern categorization consists of many nuances that are difficult for the average consumer to understand. Scientists have long been trying to bring order to the assignment of crops to a particular class, but such work may take an indefinite number of years.
It turns out that the fruits that we are accustomed to use are difficult to attribute to a particular class. In order to correctly classify a particular plant, it is necessary to study the culture from different angles. But it is known for certain that strawberry is not a berry from a botanical point of view, but refers to multipoles.
Unusual features
Strawberries are known to almost every person, but few people really know everything about this amazing plant. As it turned out earlier, the fruits of this crop are not berries. And what else is interesting strawberry?
- In fact, the plant that is grown in garden plots is not a strawberry. Its real name is “garden strawberry”, and it was formed by crossing virgin strawberries and Chilean strawberries. The difference of strawberry from wild strawberry consists only in a larger amount of fruits.
- Large-fruited strawberries are considered the only plant in the world whose seeds are located on the receptacle. On one fruit, on average, there are about 180 nuts.
- Scientists have found that strawberries are superior to humans in the number of genes. According to recent studies, it has been proven that garden strawberries have 35 thousand genes, whereas a person is the carrier of only 25 thousand genes.
- The most interesting thing is that strawberries contain more vitamin C than lemon. 60 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 g of fresh product. An adult of this dose is enough to fill the daily need for vitamin C.
You will find even more interesting facts about strawberries in the next video.