Why the strawberry is a nut

 Although its name seems to give it away, the strawberry is not a berry, but a nut - more precisely: a collective fruit. We clear up the myth!

Why the strawberry is a nut

Its taste, appearance, and name make us believe that the strawberry is a berry. Wrong thought! Because in truth it is a collective fruit

Juicy red, aromatically sweet and full of vitamin C: These are strawberries (Fragaria) – the absolute favourite fruit in summer! The ancient Greeks already chose them as the "queens of fruits". What many people don't know, however, is that in reality, the strawberry itself is a pseudo-fruit consisting of many tiny nut fruits. We show why the strawberry is actually a nut from a botanical point of view.

Why is the strawberry actually a nut?

It looks like a berry, tastes like a berry and even bears this name in its name – although botanically speaking, the strawberry is not a berry, but a collective fruit. The strawberry itself is only a pseudofruit. The actual fruits are the yellow-green tiny nuts or seeds that sit all around on the high-arched flower base.

Botanical background: Why the strawberry is a nut

To understand why the strawberry is a false fruit, you have to take a closer look at the botany of the plant, which belongs to the rose family (Rosaceae). Strawberries are perennial plants that belong to the perennials because of their way of life. The three- to five-petalled, rich green leaves are in a rosette. After a cold stimulus, umbels with small white flowers appear from their midst. Most of the time, strawberries form hermaphrodite flowers, whose pollen can fertilize the stigmas of the same plant.

In the case of pollinated stigmas and fertilized ovules, the aromatic fruits are produced within a few weeks. In the course of this, the flower base bulges strongly upwards, becomes fleshy and juicy-red - it represents the red fruit component, the false fruit, so to speak. The actual fruits of the strawberry are the yellow-green grains (nuts) that are distributed on the surface. Therefore, from a botanical point of view, the strawberry is a collective fruit - and that's why it doesn't contain a pit inside.

Why the strawberry is a nut

The strawberry is created from the flower base, which is located in the middle of the petals

Botanically speaking, berries are fruits whose seeds are located in the pulp. Each individual nut of the strawberry is thus a fruit over which the plant can reproduce.

By the way: Raspberries and blackberries are also often referred to as berries, but strictly speaking this is not true. They are collective drupes that are made up of many small drupes.

Excursus: Did you know? Some nuts are not real nuts at all

Just as the strawberry is not a berry, not every nut has to be a real nut! But what is a nut anyway according to botany? Nuts are closing fruits: This means that their fruit wall is lignified in three layers and completely envelops a single seed – the nut. In the bowl, they fall closed from the tree. What we like to eat so much is the seed of the fruit.

One of the real nuts is the hazelnut, for example, as a woody fruit wall encloses the small round seed. To enjoy the delicious hazelnut, you first have to crack the cup-like fruit wall. Walnuts or macadamia nuts are also real nuts.

The peanut, on the other hand, is not a real nut. It is related to peas and beans and, like them, belongs to the legumes, as it is surrounded by a bright red, thin and elongated skin - and usually together with another peanut. Unlike peas and beans, their skin is woody and not to be enjoyed. Pistachios and pecans are also not nuts in truth. They are the seeds of a drupe, only their inner fruit wall is lignified. The skin of the pecan, for example, is so thin that we can easily remove it by hand.

Why the strawberry is a nut