Fragaria × ananassa
Strawberries are fragrant, sweet-tart aggregate fruits with a short, delicate post-harvest life. Fully ripe fruit is aromatic and soft, two traits that also make it quick to bruise and decay.1
The red, fleshy part is enlarged receptacle tissue rather than a botanical berry. The dots on its surface are achenes—small dry fruits, each formed from a separately pollinated ovule. Incomplete pollination is one reason a strawberry can develop misshapen areas.2
Maine Extension includes both traditional June-bearing cultivars and day-neutral strawberries among varieties suited to the state’s gardens.3
The ripe fruit’s structure depends on water pressure inside loosely joined cells. Drying lowers that pressure, while freezing punctures cell walls; either route collapses the fresh texture.4 Strawberries do not improve after picking and are naturally low in pectin, so preserves often need either added pectin or a pectin-rich companion fruit.5
Footnotes
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Food & Nutrition for the Home Gardener,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
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University of Minnesota Extension, “Small or Misshapen Strawberries,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Vegetable Varieties for Maine Gardens,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
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Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. (Scribner, 2004), PDF p. 378. ↩
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Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. (Scribner, 2004), PDF p. 379. ↩