The history of the Strawberry

Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you are all well and you made some interesting experiences! In this post, I would like to talk about nature and bring the history of a plant a little closer.

Here are some pictures of the wild strawberry, which is also known under the scientific name Fragaria vesca and has accompanied humanity since the Stone Age. The strawberry probably has its origin in Europe and Asia and it was highly appreciated by numerous cultures and already mentioned in ancient writings of the Romans or Greeks and it was widely cultivated by the end of the Middle Ages in the 14th century and the people had already concentrated very much on professional breeding and the first form of breeding of the strawberry as you know it today comes from the 18th century. Settlers contributed an important part to it who discovered a variety on the Canadian continent that had much larger fruits than the wild strawberries and with the arrival of these new varieties in Europe, people began to research and created the breeding strawberry as you know it today from crossing different varieties and it did not take long until it became more and more widespread and was grown in the commercial style. Also in mythology of ancient cultures, the strawberry had an important meaning and was considered a magical plant which is of divine origin and were mostly associated with goddesses of love as well as in the Greek mythology Aphrodite and there is also a legend from ancient Greece that revolves around the origin which says that Adonis had once lost his life and the anemones emerged from his blood and his beloved Aphrodite cried for him and from her tears that the strawberry was created. It was mentioned by some Greek poets as ovid and was also considered an important medicinal plant as well as an aphrodisiac in antiquity and also in other cultures there were similar views as in Norse mythology where it was associated with the goddess of fertility and love Freya. There were views that Freya had hidden the souls of deceased children in the strawberry and also in other cultures such as the Native Americans it had a high priority and was also considered a divine fruit there and associated with ceremonies. In art, strawberries appear regularly and have inspired numerous different types of artists and there are numerous fairy tales and other legends where the strawberry plays an important role and is also attributed a huge symbolic meaning.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about nature! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.