ABSTRACT

The genus Fragaria is a group of low perennial creeping herbs distributed in the wild state in the temperate and subtropical regions of the world (Anon, 1956). The cultivated strawberry Fragaria × ananassa Duch. has been derived from the hybridization of two North American species, F. ­chiloensis (L.) Duch and F. virginiana Duch, which was first developed in France in the 18th century. Duchesne in his classical book L’Histoire Naturelle des Fraisiers (1766), which was revised in 1788, discussed the beginning of the cultivated strawberry. In 1712, a French army officer, A.F. Frezier, on his way back from Chile to France saw the large-fruited strawberry (F. chiloensis) at Concepcion, and brought five plants with him. On arrival in France, of the total five collected plants, he distributed two plants to the cargo master of the ship, one to the King’s garden in Paris, one to his superior at Brest and kept one plant himself. The introduction of F. chiloensis to France was one of the two important steps in the origin of cultivated strawberries. The second step was that Frezier brought only female plants to France, which were easily hybridized with another octoploid species, F. virginiana, to give rise to the large-fruited, cultivated strawberry F. ×  ananassa Duch.