The fight to save Chile's white strawberry
atlasobscura.com
atlasobscura.com
As for dangers, looks like:
- Lack of rail connectivity
- Climate change reducing snow
- Climate change droughtAs for the dangers you raised those are all real problems but none of them are specific to this plant.
Not my field, but I'd assume the risk of cross-pollination and eventual accidental hybridization of the native species is high.
As you're essentially re-planting pure hybrids, but the native species is having to seed and grow generations normally.
Weirdly enough, there aren't even roads connecting the southernmost part of Chile to the north without taking a detour through Argentina, though I guess nature might appreciate the largely untouched conservation zone that separates Patagonia from the north.
Not that weird. The country pretty much becomes an archipelago + ice field south of Coyhaique.
> In the 2000s the Chilean state railway company was involved in a huge corruption scandal as well as bad administrative practices. It’s been slowly recovering, but rail services in Chile still leave a lot to be desired.
This article is not an appeal to you as a reader to save the white strawberry business. It is an article on a website that makes money promoting travel and as such is not written so that the reader is in charge of the future of the fruit.
I think the market is simply one of unusual niche fruits, it's probably something the Chilean government itself needs to create.
Ultimately the main problem is that climate change is affecting the natural production of the fruit so if there's no commercial interest for it and the government doesn't care about the cultural importance of it; then it's bound to disappear and that would genuinely be a big loss (at least I'd consdier it a big loss) for cultural and biodiversity reasons.
But I think this problem is genuinely one that needs to be confronted by the Chilean government. It could become a luxury product if you target Asian markets for example.
When I studied in Chile a decade ago, everyone knew about this. They were quite proud of being part of the origin of the modern strawberry. I never did find any white strawberries myself though.
Also, Frézier's name is amusingly a homonym of the name for the strawberry plant in French (fraisier), and not only that, but etymologically comes from the word for strawberry itself (https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%...)
Essentially re-evolving similar characteristics in the child hybrid.
Although I'm guessing the pineapple flavor is new?
No, TFA talks about the pineapple aroma of the Chilean white strawberry, as well as a comparison to the pineberry, at length.
Finding strawberries in the woods has ruined store bought berries for my partner. Even farmers market berries are questionable because of the varieties they grow, which I understand, they have a business with different needs.
If you're ever in california and have money to burn, try harries berry's. They are tiny little delights and VERY tasty
Once in a while one of my local Russian restaurants or grocery stores will have wild strawberry jam imported from Europe. Usually $15+ a bottle and I buy out every single one they’ll let me (my favorite store now sets aside half the stock for me). They make the perfect gift too.
On the Bilberry front, I found a book about the vaccinium species of North America to try and identity the different huckle/blue/bilberrries around here. And the various rubus' that are not commercially grown but still taste good.
My partner and I are not Foragers(TM) but I'm always interested in food and I talked them into joining me on hikes in the spring as a chance to scout berry patches. So far it has worked. Unfortunately the cloudberries I found this summer were in a place I haven't been back to, so I still haven't picked them myself.
If you head into any alpine terrain in mid September you will find endless huckleberry (red and black), bog and alpine blueberries, and various others. They’re all absolutely incredible. I head into the mountains (usually via Strathcona provincial park’s various southern access points) this time of year to collect buckets upon buckets for my freezer.
Nothing in a store compares. Even fresh farmed blueberries, which are really nice here, are almost disappointing compared to the varieties that have grown along the slopes of the mountains. They’re such a treat. You do have to work for them, though.
We also have wild blackberries and blueberries and we have a sugar cane type plant called sorghum that makes a really rich smokey syrup that goes great on biscuits.
Sorghum is such a great food. I wish it was easier to access here as well. As a cereal it's incredibly nutritious, much more so than what's commonly available, but it's rare to see it in any form at all. "Rich smoky syrup" sounds nice too. Is it made from boiling the grains, or for the stalks/canes?
Here's a pic I took of a jar I recently got from a neighbor. You should really try some muscadines. They're a great fruit in season and even frozen.
The sundews I grow tend to die back in the fall, so it might be coming to the end of their season soon. We were there in June. There are 2 species of sundews there that I saw, they look similar but if you get close to the ground you can see there are different heights/shapes and I think they tend to catch different insects as a result. Drosera anglica and rotundifolia. There's also pinguicula vulgaris that's carnivourous and has a purple flower.
I want to say we saw sundews somewhere else on our trip, maybe out towards the coast like Ucluelet or Port Renfrew area?
I have no idea why I hadn’t considered looking for these kinds of plants on the island, but thanks again! I’ve got heaps of places to check out over the next year or two. I’m absolutely stoked!
inaturalist is pretty good for finding reports of them.
https://www.wildpacifictrail.com/bog%20interpretive%20trail....
I would recommend bringing some ziplock bags with some damp (not soaked) paper towel next time. Collect a few plants, especially any runners with plantlets that are developing roots which haven’t submerged into the soil yet; they’re highly adaptable and primed to grow, so they will handle transport more easily than an established plant in the soil already. Wrap them gently in the towels and pop them in the bag, and you’re set. They should be okay for a surprisingly long time in there.
I collect plants this way quite often. I like to harvest aquatic plants, mosses, and random interesting terrestrial species which I put into terrariums (to recreate native biotopes), and rarely have anything die.
I’d still try to keep seeds as well if you want to experiment, but definitely research vernalizing. Something I would recommend there is don’t vernalize all of your seeds in one container. Break them out into a few and try removing them at different times. Keep track of the dates, conditions, and success rates. One approach will likely work much better and then you can stick to that procedure. Unless you don’t care enough and one successful run is enough for a lifetime, haha. I do this stuff often so that’s kind of baked into my M.O.
Never knew the strawberry was also part of the colombian exchange, I find it funny that the modified strawberry found it way back to chile, which remind me of the legend about the Calafate, another chilean berry, "whom who eats the calafate always comes back".
Before the import of the American strawberries from which the cultivated strawberries have been obtained, there were no big strawberries in Europe.
A similar relationship exists between the European wild blueberries and the cultivated blueberries brought from America. The European native blueberries are smaller, but more fragrant.
Some of my favorite memories of preschool was gathering bilberries in the forest behind the school. It was essentially like Halloween with kids coming back sick from eating too much sugar.
I have used both "strawberry" and "blueberry" as generic names.
The European strawberry is also a distinct species, but belonging to the same genus with the American strawberries (Fragaria). The same for the European bilberry and the American blueberry that is the ancestor of the cultivated blueberries. They are different species of the same genus (Vaccinium).
it was always such a treat to stumble upon a patch of those
There may be a naming inaccuracy here.
I have about 150 square feet of the damned things. From twelve starts. They sure like to self-propagate.
The native Beach strawberries to the US west coast are F. chiloensis ssp. pacifica, though F. chiloensis ssp. lucida from Canada were introduced.
The actual article is far more interesting.
As for the taste, like a mix of strawberry and pineapple. Solid but not worth the added cost over strawberries.
> In the U.S., pineberry goes by the name “hula berry” and made waves after appearing (in plant form) in stores like Home Depot and Walmart.
> Like the garden strawberry, however, both of these fruits are a Fragaria x ananassa hybrid. They’re not the pineapple-scented fruit from Chile