People are just realising what the white dots on strawberries are and they are shocked to discover that they are not seeds. Strawberries are a popular summer fruit and they are enjoyed by many on a hot summer’s day. While they are a favourite fruit for many Brits, most people don’t stop to think abiut the makup of a strawberry and the white dots that surround this delicious fruit.
However, people are now learning exactly what the white dots on strawberries are and they are more than surprised. Most poeple would assume that the white dots on the outside of a strawberry are seeds. They look exactly like seeds and they even feel like seeds. But you would be mistaken to identify them as this.
In fact, these white dots are actually something called achenes, which is the plant’s fruit. Each strawberry has hundreds of these seed-like dots on the outside of them.
These white dots on the outside of your strawberry are actually the fruit. So, when you eat one strawberry, you are eating hundreds of fruits, experts say.
Furthermore, many people aren’t aware that starwberries, despite their name, aren’t even berries. The achene, which we mistake for seeds, actually contains a seed inside it, making it the fruit.
But the part we bite into, the sweet, fleshy strawberry that many of us love, isn’t the fruit. So, what is it?
Aaron Liston, professor and herbarium director in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University, explained to Live Science that the red part is actually the receptacle – the part of the plant that holds the fruits together.
He explains that the “genes that would typically be expressed in the fruit are now expressed in the receptacle” which makes the receptacle grow instead of the fruit.
He added: “I think they’ve found a very good evolutionary trick and it’s worked. You can find wild strawberries all over the globe now.”
Reddit users have reacted to this discovery, weith many people expressing their dibelief. One person even labelled it “fruitception”.
