Did You Know There Are About 300 Varieties!? Strawberry Trivia – Part 1
English
Strawberries: Japan’s Beloved Fruit According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ website, there are about 300 varieties of strawberries in Japan. Moreover, there’s a theory that over half of the world’s strawberry varieties are Japanese, and new varieties are continuously being developed through breeding!
Did You Know? Strawberries Belong to the Rose Family! Botanically speaking, strawberries are part of the Rosales order and the Rosaceae family. Other fruits in the same family include apples, pears, and cherries. While roses have thorns, they share a family with these sweet and delightful fruits. If you think about it, many of these fruits have a rich aroma, much like roses.
Strawberries are Vegetables! Surprisingly, strawberries are considered vegetables. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ website states, “Being herbaceous, strawberries are vegetables. They are also categorized as vegetables in the Ministry’s crop statistics. However, they are often consumed like fruits and are sometimes referred to as ‘fruit-like vegetables’.” So, adding strawberries to your morning salad or smoothie is indeed a good choice!
Those Tiny Dots on Strawberries Aren’t Seeds! Another surprise: the tiny dots on the surface of strawberries aren’t seeds but are actually individual fruits. A strawberry consists of 200-300 of these tiny fruits. The seeds are inside these tiny fruits, and the sweet part we eat is actually the swollen receptacle of the flower. It’s surreal to think about it while eating. Considering there are 300 seeds, it’s like a blessing of abundant offspring!
Strawberries: A Journey from the Netherlands While wild strawberries have been consumed since the Stone Age, the cultivation of the Dutch strawberry, born from the North American “Fragaria virginiana” and the South American Chilean “Fragaria chiloensis,” began in the 18th century in the Netherlands. In Japan, there are two wild varieties: the white-flowered snake strawberry and the wild strawberry. The Dutch strawberry was introduced to Japan in the late Edo period.
Japan’s First Domestic Strawberry was Cultivated in Shinjuku! Interestingly, the first domestic strawberry variety, “Fukuba Strawberry” (and no, this isn’t a pun!), was developed in the urban area of Shinjuku. In 1898, Dr. Hayato Fukuba cultivated the “Fukuba Strawberry” from the French variety “General Chanzy” at the Shinjuku Gyoen, which was then an imperial garden. This strawberry, also known as “Gyoen Strawberry,” was exclusively for the imperial family. It later spread across the country and became the ancestor of popular varieties like “Nyoho,” “Tochiotome,” and “Amaou.”
A Guinness World Record Strawberry! In 2014, a Japanese strawberry made it to the Guinness World Records. The “Amaou” strawberry, originating from Fukuoka and highly regarded in Asia, weighed an astonishing 250g! This weight is equivalent to a typical pack of strawberries. Measuring 8cm in width, 12cm in height, and 25cm in circumference, this strawberry is as big as a flower petal.
In Conclusion Starting from Shinjuku, with over 300 varieties, making it to the Guinness records, belonging to the rose family, being a vegetable, and having 200-300 individual fruits on them, strawberries are indeed fascinating! Did you grasp the depth of strawberries? Stay tuned for more intriguing facts about strawberries in “Strawberry Trivia – Part 2.”
