The world of fruits and vegetables can be quite misleading. For example, it is very curious that tomatoes are fruits or that carrots just two years ago were white. And it is also very striking that strawberry seeds In reality they are not seeds, but precisely the fruits of the plant.
Yes, indeed, those points are something known as achene. That is, nuts with a single seed inside, which is not welded to the pericarp or, in other words, to the layer of the fruit that normally surrounds the seed. An example of an individual achene is acorn and a set of achenes, similar to those of the strawberry, the fig. In the latter, those crunchy balls inside are the fruits and the whole thing that we eat something known as sicono.
For all this, we can say that both strawberries and figs are not fruits, but infructescences. It is a slight difference that, before talking about strawberry seeds, we should clarify some concepts.
What is the difference between fruit and fruit?
To talk about fruits, we must turn to botany. According to this discipline, the fruit is the organ from the floweror some parts of it, containing the seeds and helps spread them. That is, once fertilization occurs, the flowers, part of them, transform into a fruit, which contributes to the dissemination of seeds in many ways. For example, when animals eat it and then defecate on the ground.
Notably Not all fruits are edible. Some spread the seeds by simply detaching themselves from the plant and letting themselves be carried by the wind or water currents in case it rains. There are also some that are not edible, but they do take advantage of animals, since they can adhere to their hair or feathers.
Now, returning to those that are edible, when they are also usable for human nutrition, that is when we know them as fruit.
In the case of strawberry seeds that They really aren’t seeds., those that obey the definition of fruit are precisely the seeds, since they are the ones that contain the seeds. Although the whole set is what contributes to its dispersion. It can be seen as a teamwork.
Neither fruits nor berries
We have already seen that strawberry seeds are not really seeds and that, therefore, we cannot consider them fruits. Can we then think that they are berries? The truth is, no.
By definition, berries are types of simple fleshy fruits, whose seeds are surrounded by pulp. A good example is the tomato. If we cut it in half, we will see a lot of seeds, surrounded by a very fleshy pulp.
In the case of strawberries, the seeds are inside the achenesso that a dried fruit surrounds them.
At most, we could consider that strawberries are fruits of the forest, since they are infructescences that, together with their fruits, can grow naturally in forest ecosystems.
False strawberry seeds are not the best way to grow
Who has not ever buried the so-called peach pits or put a lentil in wet cotton when he was little to grow a plant?
Both are ways of cultivating directly through the fruit seeds. In the case of the peach, that pit is actually the plant’s own seed, surrounded by a rigid, hard shell. On the other hand, the lentils that we eat are directly the seeds of the plant.
On the other hand, to plant strawberries, it is not usually done by burying the fruit. If we did, we could somehow get something to germinate, since its achenes contain the seeds of strawberries. But it is not the most common.
Generally, strawberries they are grown through stolons. These are shoots that arise at the base of the stem of the plant and grow horizontally. Along the stolons, there are structures, called internodes, that can produce roots. Therefore, if we plant the runners separately from the rest of the plant, they will end up rooting and giving rise to a new plant.
This can be done with plants such as mint; but, without a doubt, one of the best known that reproduces in this way are strawberries. The seeds, inside the infructescencesare not as accessible as in other fruits, hence stolons are the best option.
In short, strawberry seeds are not seeds, and strawberries, by definition, are neither fruits nor berries. But they are very good and have many properties. In fact, has just been discovered that can help prevent dementia and improve mood in older people. There are plenty of reasons to eat them. The Truth About His Points is simply an interesting conversation to have with your brother-in-law.