66 Fun Facts About Strawberry

Botanically speaking, which of these is a strawberry?

A strawberry is an aggregate accessory fruit: the red flesh grows from the flower's receptacle, not the ovary, so botanists do not call it a berry, while bananas and tomatoes are true berries.

The tiny 'seeds' dotting the outside of a strawberry are actually what?

They are achenes, tiny dry fruits each holding one seed; a single strawberry carries around 200 of them on its skin, while the red flesh is the swollen receptacle.

Strawberries belong to which group of plants?

Apples, pears, cherries, raspberries and almonds are all cousins in the same family, Rosaceae.

The modern garden strawberry was first bred in the 1750s in which region?

It came from crossing a Virginia strawberry from North America with a Chilean one, so the world's favourite berry is an accidental French hybrid of two American parents.

What was the day job of Amédée-François Frézier, who brought the Chilean strawberry to Europe in 1714?

Spy: Frézier, a French army engineer, posed as a merchant to map Spanish fortifications on the Chilean coast, and sailed home in 1714 with five strawberry plants.

The scientific name of the garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, refers to which other fruit?

Pineapple: eighteenth-century growers called the hybrid the 'pine strawberry' for its flavour, and the epithet ananassa comes from ananas, the word for pineapple.

Which country grew the most strawberries in 2023, about a third of the world total?

China: it grew over three million tonnes in 2023, roughly a third of the world crop, with the United States a distant second.

Raw strawberries are roughly what percentage water?

About 91 percent: USDA data give 91 grams of water per 100 grams of raw strawberries, with 8 grams of carbohydrate, almost no fat and about 32 calories.

A 100-gram serving of strawberries provides about 65 percent of the daily value of which nutrient?

Vitamin C: 100 grams of strawberries hold about 59 milligrams, slightly more than an orange; manganese is the only other nutrient present in a significant amount.

Which pigment gives strawberries their red colour?

Pelargonidin-3-glucoside, an anthocyanin, makes up most of the red pigment in ripe strawberries; the same pigment family colours red cabbage and blueberries.

Which kind of strawberry cultivar may suit people with a strawberry allergy?

White-fruited ones: the main allergen, Fra a 1, is involved in making red pigment, so white cultivars that ripen fully without colouring carry far less of it.

Strawberries and cream is the signature snack of which sporting event?

Wimbledon: the tournament gets through roughly 28 tonnes of Kent strawberries each year, served with cream, a tradition traced back to the first championships in 1877.

Strawberries and cream is said to date to a visit Henry VIII paid to which of his officials?

Wolsey's cook at Hampton Court is rumoured to have served wild strawberries and cream, and because the king ate it, everyone else wanted it too.

The Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was named after what kind of place in Liverpool?

Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children's home in Woolton; John Lennon played in its garden as a boy, and its red gates on Beaconsfield Road became a fan pilgrimage site.

'Strawberry Fields Forever' was released in 1967 as a double A-side with which other Beatles song?

Penny Lane: the February 1967 double A-side stalled at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck's 'Release Me', ending the band's four-year run of chart-topping singles.

The Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon in Central Park has a mosaic bearing which single word?

The black-and-white mosaic reads 'Imagine', after Lennon's 1971 song; it sits near West 72nd Street, across from the Dakota where he lived and was shot in 1980.

The children's character Strawberry Shortcake began life in the 1970s as what?

A greeting card illustration: American Greetings first used the strawberry-bonneted girl on a card in 1977, then licensed the character for dolls and toys in 1979.

What was special about the hair of the original 1979 Strawberry Shortcake dolls?

It was scented: each character's hair smelled of its own fruit or dessert, and Strawberry Shortcake's pet cat was named Custard.

Which toy company released the first Strawberry Shortcake doll in 1979?

Kenner, the Cincinnati toy maker behind the Star Wars figures, licensed Strawberry Shortcake from American Greetings and sold the scented dolls from 1979 into the mid-1980s.

What is the name of Strawberry Shortcake's arch-enemy in the classic cartoons?

The Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak, a moustachioed pastry thief, was her foe from the 1980 TV specials onward, usually scheming alongside Sour Grapes.

Which town in Florida calls itself the winter strawberry capital of the world?

Plant City, east of Tampa, grows most of Florida's winter crop; its Florida Strawberry Festival, first held in 1930, runs 11 days and draws about half a million people.

The Florida Strawberry Festival was conceived in 1930 by which local group?

The Plant City Lions Club launched the Florida Strawberry Festival in 1930 to celebrate the harvest; it was suspended during World War II and revived in 1948.

Which Louisiana town, the self-styled Strawberry Capital of the World, holds a Strawberry Festival each April?

Ponchatoula, in Tangipahoa Parish, first held its Strawberry Festival in April 1972 and calls itself the Strawberry Capital of the World.

Driscoll's, the world's largest berry company, is headquartered in which town near Monterey Bay?

Watsonville, in the Pajaro Valley south of Santa Cruz, is home to Driscoll's, whose roots there go back to 1904; it breeds proprietary varieties and licenses them only to approved growers.

Which state grew nearly nine in ten of America's strawberries in 2017?

California: Monterey, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties alone accounted for most of the state's crop, grown on the cool, foggy coastal plain.

The 'Strawberry Moon' is the full moon of which month in the Farmers' Almanac tradition?

June: the name, recorded from Algonquin peoples and popularised by the Maine Farmer's Almanac in the 1930s, marks the short strawberry-picking season of early summer.

What was Deana Carter's 1996 debut single, a number one about a first love on a grandparents' farm?

'Strawberry Wine', written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison, topped the country chart in 1996 and won the CMA Song of the Year award in 1997.

Who produced the Brothers Johnson's 1977 hit cover of 'Strawberry Letter 23'?

Quincy Jones produced the Brothers Johnson's 1977 album 'Right on Time', whose cover of Shuggie Otis's 1971 song 'Strawberry Letter 23' reached number five on the Hot 100.

The 1960s band Strawberry Alarm Clock is best remembered for which psychedelic hit?

'Incense and Peppermints' topped the Hot 100 in November 1967; its lead vocal was sung by Greg Munford, a 16-year-old friend of the band who was not a member.

Wild Strawberries' Swedish title, Smultronstället, idiomatically means what?

The film won the Golden Bear at Berlin and gave Victor Sjöström his final screen role.

The 1941 film The Strawberry Blonde starred Olivia de Havilland opposite which actor?

James Cagney played dentist Biff Grimes opposite Olivia de Havilland; Rita Hayworth was the title character, and the film remade 1933's One Sunday Afternoon.

James Kunen's The Strawberry Statement, filmed in 1970, recounted 1968 protests at which university?

Columbia: Kunen's 1969 book described the April 1968 occupation of Columbia's buildings, though the 1970 film moved the story to a fictional San Francisco campus.

Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House is the prototype of which architectural style?

Gothic Revival: Walpole rebuilt the Twickenham villa from 1749 with battlements, pinnacles and pointed arches, wanting 'gloomth' inside, and 'Strawberry Hill Gothic' became a style in its own right.

Which city's coat of arms shows a bear reaching up into a strawberry tree?

Madrid: 'El Oso y el Madroño', the bear and the strawberry tree, has been the city's emblem since the 13th century and also appears on Atlético Madrid's badge.

The strawberry tree Arbutus unedo is regarded as the national tree of which country?

Italy: the corbezzolo's green leaves, white flowers and red berries echo the tricolour, a symbolism Giovanni Pascoli celebrated in verse; the plant also grows wild around Killarney in Ireland.

The strawberry poison frog is nicknamed after which item of clothing, thanks to its most common colour morph?

'Blue jeans': the common morph has a red body with blue legs; the species has 15 to 30 colour morphs and mothers feed their tadpoles unfertilised eggs.

The Fraise Tagada, a pink sugar-dusted strawberry candy invented in 1969, is made by which company?

Haribo introduced the Fraise Tagada in 1969 from its factory in Marseille; the foamy strawberry sweet became one of France's best-selling confections.

Eton mess is traditionally served at Eton's annual cricket match against which school?

Harrow: the strawberries, meringue and cream pudding is served at the annual Eton v Harrow match at Lord's; the earliest print mention dates from 1893.

Which pastry chef created the modern French fraisier cake in 1966?

Gaston Lenôtre created it in 1966 and first called it the Bagatelle after the Paris gardens; the name fraisier simply means strawberry plant.

Ichigo daifuku, a strawberry wrapped in sweet bean paste and mochi, was invented in Japan in which decade?

The 1980s: several Japanese confectioners claim to have first wrapped a strawberry in bean paste and mochi around 1985, so the exact inventor is disputed; it is a springtime treat.

Along with vanilla and chocolate, strawberry is one of the three stripes of which classic ice cream?

Neapolitan: the block takes its name from the Neapolitan ice-cream makers who brought layered ices to 19th-century America; strawberry, vanilla and chocolate became the standard trio.

The earliest recorded serving of strawberry ice cream, in 1744, was by which colony's governor?

Maryland: a guest of Governor Thomas Bladen in Annapolis recorded in 1744 a dessert of ice cream served with fresh strawberries and milk, the first mention of ice cream in America.

Little Scarlet, the strawberry jam Bond eats in From Russia, with Love, comes from which country?

Britain: Wilkin & Sons of Tiptree, Essex, have grown the small Little Scarlet strawberry since the early 1900s, and Fleming gave Bond its jam for breakfast.

A pineberry is a strawberry cultivar with what unusual appearance?

White flesh with red seeds: the pineberry is a white-fruited hybrid of Chilean strawberry stock with a faint pineapple flavour, developed by Dutch growers and sold commercially from about 2010.

Wépion, considered Belgium's strawberry capital, is a district of which city?

Namur: Wépion lies on the Meuse just south of the city and has grown strawberries since the 19th century; it even has a Musée de la Fraise.

In Mexican slang, calling someone a 'fresa' (strawberry) means they are what?

Wealthy and superficial: 'fresa' is roughly 'preppy', a stereotype of rich, affected youth said to talk as if they had a potato in the mouth.

In Taiwan, the 'strawberry generation' is a label for young people who supposedly do what?

Bruise easily under pressure: the 'strawberry generation' tag mocks those born after 1981 as soft; 2008 student protesters embraced it as the Wild Strawberries Movement.

William Morris's 1883 pattern Strawberry Thief depicts which birds raiding his kitchen garden?

Thrushes: Morris watched them stealing fruit from the kitchen garden at Kelmscott Manor; the slow indigo-discharge printing made it one of Morris & Co.'s most expensive cottons.

Giant strawberries appear among the nude figures in which famous triptych by Hieronymus Bosch?

The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted around 1500, is dotted with giant strawberries; Fray José de Sigüenza wrote in 1605 that they stood for fleeting earthly pleasures.

In which Shakespeare tragedy is a handkerchief 'spotted with strawberries' used as false proof of adultery?

Othello: Iago plants Desdemona's strawberry-spotted handkerchief, Othello's first gift to her, on Cassio to convince the Moor of her infidelity.

Which Roman poet's Eclogues warned strawberry-pickers of a snake in the grass?

Virgil: Eclogue III tells boys picking flowers and low-growing strawberries to flee because 'a cold snake lurks in the grass', the origin of 'snake in the grass'.

Which R&B artist covered Coldplay's 'Strawberry Swing' on his 2011 mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra?

Frank Ocean reworked 'Strawberry Swing', from Coldplay's 2008 album Viva la Vida, with his own lyrics on Nostalgia, Ultra, the mixtape that launched his solo career.

Which city did Strawberry Switchblade, the polka-dot duo behind 'Since Yesterday', come from?

Glasgow: Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson met in the city's late-1970s punk scene and reached the UK top five with 'Since Yesterday' in 1985.

Strawberry Fair, a free festival held since 1974 on the first Saturday of June, takes place in which English city?

Cambridge: the fair is held on Midsummer Common beside the River Cam; run entirely by volunteers, it draws around 30,000 people.

Strawberry plants spread by sending out horizontal stems that root at their tips, called what?

Stolons, the runners a strawberry plant sends across the soil, root at their nodes to form clones; growers propagate most cultivars this way rather than from seed.

Who showed in 1766, at Versailles, that the garden strawberry was a hybrid of two American species?

Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, a young botanist at Versailles, published his Histoire naturelle des fraisiers in 1766, identifying the pine strawberry as a cross of the Chilean and Virginia species.

Which university's breeding programme released the strawberry cultivars Chandler, Camarosa and Albion?

The University of California's programme at Davis released Chandler in 1983, Camarosa in 1992 and Albion in 2006, varieties that came to dominate plantings in California and beyond.

Which species, known as the hautbois strawberry, was Europe's cultivated favourite before the garden hybrid?

The musk strawberry, Fragaria moschata, was the hautbois or 'capron' grown in European gardens from the 16th century, prized for its musky flavour before the garden hybrid took over.

Elsanta, for decades the supermarket strawberry of northern Europe, was bred in which country?

The Netherlands: Elsanta was bred at Wageningen from a Gorella × Holiday cross and released in 1981; its firmness and shelf life made it the standard supermarket berry.

What is the name of the virtually allergen-free strawberry cultivar?

It lacks Fra a1, the protein tied to red pigment that is thought to trigger strawberry allergy.

Which two volatile compounds are especially prized by US breeders for a 'sweet and fruity' aroma?

Methyl anthranilate and gamma-decalactone: US breeders seek these for a 'sweet and fruity' aroma; only 31 of some 360 volatiles correlate significantly with desirable strawberry flavour.

In which year was the garden strawberry's genome sequence published?

2019: the octoploid garden strawberry's genome appeared in Nature Genetics that year, nine years after its diploid relative F. vesca, a model plant, was sequenced in 2010.

What does the Latin epithet 'vesca', as in the wild wood strawberry, literally mean?

'Thin or feeble': vescus is Latin for slight or weak, though Linnaeus may have intended the related sense of 'edible', from vescor, 'to eat'.

How many chromosomes does the diploid wild wood strawberry have in total?

14: Fragaria has a base count of seven chromosomes, so the diploid wood strawberry has two sets, 14 in all, while the octoploid garden strawberry has 56.

The first modern alpine strawberry cultivar, bred at Castle Putbus, is named after which German island?

Rügen: Emil Spangenberg first offered the runnerless, everbearing alpine variety in 1920 from Castle Putbus on Germany's largest island, and named it for the island.

How much did Iconix Brand Group pay American Greetings for Strawberry Shortcake in 2015?

$105 million: Iconix bought the brand from American Greetings in March 2015, then sold it for the same sum in 2017 to DHX Media, later renamed WildBrain.