What Plant Family Are Strawberries In?

Strawberries (Fragaria spp.) Are members of the Rosaceae family, commonly known as the family. The Rosaceae family encompasses roughly 3,400 species, including herbs, shrubs and trees. The plants in the Rosaceae family members are divided into subfamilies that share common characteristics. The strawberry is one of several types of fruit-bearing plant at the Rosaceae family that make clusters of fruit from one blossom.

Classification

The Rosaceae family is broken into several subfamilies. Strawberries are at the subfamily Rosoideae. This subfamily includes strawberries, roses and several different types of fruit such as raspberries. The Rosaceae family is divided into subfamilies according to common features of the gynoecium of species. The gynoecium consists of the female reproductive organs contained in the pistils of a flower.

Subfamily

Species in the Rosoideae subfamily have clusters of apocarpous pistils that eventually become achenes as they mature. Flowers with apocarpous pistils have at least 2 pistils that are independent from each other. The pistils of a strawberry blossom are an assortment of female reproductive organs that form the achenes, which can be individual fruits that contain the seeds of the strawberry. All these achenes are the little, hard objects that pepper the surface of the strawberries’ fleshy, red accessory fruit.

Regarding Rosoideae

The rosoideae subfamily includes species from a number of genera in addition to strawberries. Some notable species categorized at exactly the same subfamily as strawberries are plants from the genera Rosa and Rubus. Species in the genus Rosa are usually known as roses, while species in the Rubus genus contain blackberries, raspberries and other species of fruit. Although strawberry, blackberry and raspberry plants each create numerous fruits from one blossom, blackberry and raspberry make an aggregate fruit composed of druplets. Every druplet is a small, round piece of fruit that grows in a cluster from one blossom.

Genus

Strawberry plants are classified in the genus Fragaria. The backyard strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) is a commonly created hybrid species of strawberry that was designed from Fragaria virginiana and Fragaria chiloensis. The garden strawberry creates a big fleshy accessory fruit using sunken achenes.

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