DNA suggests strawberries may have evolved from tall trees (evolution obviously does not always favor “bigger is better”). A native berry (virginiana), found from the Pacific to the Atlantic (shown) was hybridized with the Western Beach strawberry (chiloenis). Chance crossing of the 2 species in Brest and Cherbourg, followed by a French botanist research,
created the fruit we harvest commercially today. Both parent plants are native to Cascadia, along with the Woodland Strawberry (vesca). Explorers found fields in the South strewn (like “straw”) with fruit, so abundant a horse’s flanks were painted red by the berries’ juices. Pioneer stories for our area tell of sending children out into the woods each Summer to gather the small native strawberries to sell or eat, as did Native Americans, to dry and mix with meat (creating pemican). Records suggest native strawberries were far more abundant 150 years ago, perhaps the result of not obvious agricultural efforts for thousands of years by the Indigenous Peoples. When this writer was a boy the 7,000 acres on the hills to the east of the Farm (around what is now the Pilchuck Glass School) held strawberry fields. Haida from Vancouver Island were bused down to pick the berries. All now forgotten, totally obliterated by Douglas Fir plantations that are more profitable.
https://appvoices.org/2002/06/01/2917/
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=fragaria
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4117466/
https://woodbrooknativeplantnursery.com/plant/fragaria-vesca/
https://www.plc215.org/wp…/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-06.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=folQz2nUS1Q
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Fragaria%20vesca
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Fragaria%20virginiana
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Fragaria%20chiloensis
Primary Level Question (Best answer)
Most native plants have white blossoms, not all …. but most. What color are all 3 native strawberries fruit?
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