From Aphrodite’s Tears?
Savage boars, French spies, botanical accidents, and science — where did all these strawberries come from?
By Matthew Beebe
Adonis and Aphrodite were quite the power couple. The goddess of love did her best to keep her mortal lover safe from jealous gods and other dangers, but sadly Adonis met an unfortunate end on an unlucky hunting trip.
Adonis was a passionate hunter. He grew bored of Aphrodite’s preferred (and very safe) quarry: doves, rabbits, and pigeons. One day, away from her direct supervision, he pursued a wild boar. The boar retaliated with sharp tusks, leaving Adonis mortally wounded on the forest floor.
Aphrodite rushed to him, cradling him in his final moments. Where her tears and his blood touched the earth sprang a sweet, red, heart shaped fruit.
Tragic. But hey, we got strawberries!
Mythology aside, the birth of the modern strawberry is shrouded in some mystery — here are the basics.
We need to jump ahead to the 16th century, when two species of strawberries made an improbable journey to France, from opposite ends of the Americas.
Fragaria virginiana, native to eastern North America, was prized for its intense flavor but bore small, delicate fruit. It was documented by early European explorers like Jacques Cartier in the 1500s, who observed Indigenous peoples gathering wild strawberries. English and French naturalists eventually brought the plant back across the ocean, where it took root in European gardens.
Fragaria chiloensis, native to the coast of Chile, had large, pale berries and a firmer texture, but a milder taste. In 1712, it made its way to Europe thanks to Amédée-François Frézier, a French spy and botanist who smuggled a few live plants back from South America. His name comes from fraise, the French word for strawberry. That’s Monsieur Strawberry to you ok?
Eventually, both species ended up in the same garden in Brittany, France. They hybridized accidentally, producing a plant that combined the best of both: larger berries with rich flavor. The cross became Fragaria × ananassa — the ancestor of nearly every strawberry grown commercially today.
Next stop: the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program, which has been developing new varieties since the 1930s. Its research and teaching efforts focus on challenges like disease resistance, yield, aroma, and shelf life.
Their work has led to many of today’s most popular varieties, including favorites you’ll find right now at Rootstock—Albion, Gaviota and Monterey.
Sources
1) Stephen Fry, Mythos (Michael Joseph, 2017), pp. 262–264.
2) “The Story of the Strawberry,” History Workshop, 2021. historyworkshop.org.uk
3) “Amédée-François Frézier,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amédée-François_Frézier
4) “Strawberry,” Wikipedia. wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry
This story also appears in the May 22 edition of the Rootstock Gazette
