The Origin and History of Strawberry Plants

The Origin and History of Strawberry Plants

Strawberry or strawberry (also known as strawberry, from the Dutch aardbei) is a genus of plants in the Rosaceae family, also the name of the fruit of this plant. The name comes from ancient English streawberige which is a combination of streaw or "straw" and berige or "berry". The reason for giving this name is still unclear. (www.warintek.progresio.or.id., 2007).

Strawberry plants originated from the American continent. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, a botanist from the Soviet Union, in 1887-1942 had carried out expeditions to Asia, Arika, Europe and America, he concluded that the strawberry plants originated from the region of Chile. The first strawberry species or species found in Chile is Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Duchesne or the strawberry disbeut of Chile (Rukmana, 1998).

Most strawberries that grow in the world are wild varieties. Strawberries that are usually cultivated are only two species, namely F.chiloensis (L.) Duch, originating from North and South America, and F. virginiana Duch, originating from the Atlantic and Rocky Mountains in North America (Hartmann et all, 1981).

Strawberry plants have been known since Roman times. The currently cultivated strawberries are called modern strawberries with the scientific name Fragaria x ananassa var duchesne, which is the result of a crossing from F. virginiana L. var. duschene (from North America) with F. chiloensis L. duschene variety from Chile. This cross was carried out in 1750

Strawberries are maintained and cultivated on a large scale in most temperate countries and in several subtropical countries. In the tropics, strawberries are cultivated in the highlands. In northern Thailand, strawberries are commercially maintained by many farmers even on a small scale. In various other regions in Southeast Asia, strawberries are planted and the fruit is marketed at any time (Verheij and Coronel, 1997).

Strawberry plant species namely Fragaria chiloensis L. spread to various countries in America, Europe and Asia. While other species, namely F. vesca L., are more widely distributed than other species, such as to Indonesia (Hartmann, et all, 1981).

Introduced strawberry varieties that can be planted in Indonesia are Osogrande, Pajero, Selva, Ostara, Tenira, Robunda, Bogota, Elvira, Grella and Red Gantlet. In Cianjur, Hokowaze varieties from Japan are fast-growing fruits. Lembang Farmers (Bandung) who have long planted strawberries, use local varieties of Bengal and Pineapple that are suitable for making processed food from strawberries such as jam (www.ipteknet.com., 2011).

The main strawberry producing country in the world is the United States. The second producing countries after the United States are Poland and Italy, followed by Japan and Mexico. In the United States, there are 13 strawberry-producing states. The biggest producing state is California. Some strawberry cultivars used in California are douglas, pajaro, chandler, parker, oso grande, earlibrite and sweet Charlie (www.warintek.progresio.or.id., 2007).

The area of ​​North Sumatra that is suitable for strawberry plants is the Karo land area. Cultivation of strawberry in karo land only exists in the village of Tongkoh, Subdistrict of three arrows and Korpri village of Brastagi District. Farmers in North Sumatra (karo land) plant varieties of sweet charli and oso grance varieties that are very well consumed as fresh fruit (Aswita, 2007).