Fragaria ananassa

The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; Fragaria × ananassa) is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus Fragaria in the rose family, Rosaceae, collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. This is appreciated for its aroma, bright red colour, juicy texture, and sweetness. It is eaten either fresh or in prepared foods such as jam, juice, pies, ice cream, milkshakes, and chocolates. Artificial strawberry flavourings and aromas are widely used in commercial products. Botanically, the strawberry is not a berry but an aggregate accessory fruit; each apparent 'seed' on the outside of the strawberry is actually an achene, a botanical fruit with a seed inside it. The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of F. virginiana from eastern North America and F. chiloensis, which was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. Cultivars of F. × ananassa have replaced the woodland strawberry F. vesca in commercial production. In 2022, world production of strawberries exceeded nine million tons, led by China with 35% of the total. Strawberries have appeared in literature and art from Roman times; Virgil wrote about the snake lurking beneath the strawberry, an image reinterpreted by later writers including Shakespeare. Strawberries appear in Italian, Flemish, and German paintings, including Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It has been understood to symbolize the ephemerality of earthly joys, or the benefit that blessed souls get from religion, or to allegorize death and resurrection; by the late 20th century, it had come to symbolize female sexuality.