Last weekend, my youngest son Lemon asked –
“ Mommy, bakit strawberry ang tawag sa strawberry?”
It took me a minute before I could reply. I usually have witty answers to his never-ending questions about everything that tickles his curiosity.
But this one is really mind-boggling! It would be easier sana if he’d asked me about blueberry for I could instantly say that the name is due to its color! Haha
For how did strawberry gets its name??? I humbly admit to my little one that I don’t have any idea as to its origin. Instead I promised to get back to him once I have the answer.
So there goes my search for this cutie strawberry. I never expected a lot of amazing facts about this fruit – err plant!
Belonging to genus fragraria, that makes it a close relative of rose plant. While blueberry has a seed inside it, strawberry seems having its seeds on the outside.
Now, remember the parts of a plant we studied on our science class? The part of the strawberry that we eat which we all know as fruit is actually the “stamen”. Stamen is the part that holds the ovaries. On the other hand, the outside seeds that we visibly see is in fact the plant’s ovaries! Ready? This means that the seed is actually the fruit which has a separate seed inside it! (anu raw?) Whew! What a berry complicated anatomy!
Going back to our question, there is no concrete written facts as to how it gets its name. Some believed that farmers have this practice of spreading a layer of grass straws around each plant in order to grow and protect strawberry plant against climate.
That’s it! Hope it satisfies my Lemon’s curiosity and I hope I make sense! haha
