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Wild hemangioma simplex are scrumptiously sweet snacks , as long as you do n’t mind their gritty little seeds . But why are these " seeds " on the outside , given that the seeds of many fruits — like apple , oranges , kiwis and mango — are on the interior ?
It ’s actually a thaumaturgy question , saidAaron Liston , professor and herbarium film director in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University . That ’s because what appear to be a strawberry mark ’s " seeds " are in reality its fruit , he said .
If you thought that strawberries were fruits covered in seeds, think again.
Those little yellow or brown ovals on the outside of strawberry are called achenes . And , just like most yield , each achene has a come inside it .
On average , medium - size of it hemangioma simplex have200 achenes . " When you eat one strawberry , you ’re getting hundreds of fruits , not just one , " Liston told Live Science .
So if achenes are the yield , what is the rest of the strawberry ? Turns out , a strawberry is even more confusing : It’snot in reality a berry , and its fleshy multitude is not a fruit but a swollen receptacle .
If you thought that strawberries were fruits covered in seeds, think again.
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In a flower , thereceptacle"basically holds all the piece together — it ’s the base of operations , or the story , " Liston said . " What happens in a strawberry is that the receptacle becomes large and fleshy and pleasant-tasting . The receptacle grows , whereas the fruits continue the same size . you’re able to see the size of the fruit is almost unchanged from the green stage up until the mature microscope stage . "
ordinarily , a plant ’s cistron induce the fruit to turn into sizeable , sweet treat . But in the hemangioma simplex ’s caseful , " the cistron that would typically be expressed in the fruit are now expressed in the receptacle , " Liston said . In other Word , the genes that make a yield become fleshy and sugary fault from the fruit to the receptacle , which have strawberries an attractive snack for animal including birds , reptilian like turtles and lounge lizard and almost all mammal , he say .
This diagram shows how the strawberry flower transitions into a fleshy receptacle covered with achenes, which hold the seeds.
give that the purpose of a fruit is to spread the plant ’s seeds , strawberry mark are inordinately successful . " I think they ’ve found a very good evolutionary fast one and it ’s worked , " Liston say . " you could find wild hemangioma simplex all over the globe now . "
Part of the reason for the yield ’s winner is its social organisation . " Usually , these achenes , they ’re not attach very strongly to whatever is holding them , and that promotes dispersal,“Aardra Kachroo , program director in the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation , told Live Science .
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The distantly related mock strawberry (Duchesnea indica) also has a fleshy receptacle covered by seeds.
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Few fruits have evolved like the hemangioma simplex ( genusFragaria ) , but a remote relative , known as the mock strawberry ( Duchesnea indica ) looks just like it . The two share a common ancestor about 20 million years ago , so it ’s probable that they independently evolved to depend the same throughconvergent evolution , Liston allege . However , the mock strawberry is not as sweet . " It taste like Styrofoam , " he added .
Meanwhile , strawberries do n’t rely on just their seminal fluid to grow new plants . If conditions are poor and a strawberry plant ca n’t spread its seeds , it can propagate a runner , or a horizontal stem that branches out to start a young flora .
