ABSTRACT
Botanically, strawberry is an aggregate fruit, which develops by the simultaneous maturation of a number of separate ovaries, which occur on a common receptacle of a single flower. These develop into one-seeded fruits or achenes (a combination of seed and ovary tissues that originate at the base of each pistil) attached to the outer surface of the receptacle through vascular connection (Darrow, 1966; Takeda et al., 1990). In horticultural crops, the enlarged receptacle with achenes is considered the berry, but is often termed a “fruit” (Perkins-Veazie, 1995). Each berry can have 20–500 achenes depending on cultivar and growing conditions (Darrow, 1966). The edible part of the fruit consists of fleshy pith at the centre, next to a ring of vascular bundles branching out into the achenes – the seeds; then a fleshy cortex outside the ring and epidermis bearing a few hairs is connected to superficial achenes. The meristematic tissue is next to the epidermis without intercellular spaces (Avigdori-Avidov, 1986). In it, the cells continue to divide after the pith and cortex cells stop dividing. The vascular bundle leading to each achene supplies water and food from the stem through the central cylinder to the achene and surrounding parenchyma cells of the receptacle (Antoszewski, 1973). The bundles are composed of longer and tougher cells compared with the flesh and seeds, and help to hold the berry together and make it firm.
