Country diaryFruit This article is more than 6 years old100 years ago: the strawberry and raspberry hybrid theory
This article is more than 6 years oldOriginally published in the Manchester Guardian on 20 September 1917
Kew Gardens
A Manchester correspondent writes that there is such a fruit as “raspberry and strawberry crossed,” and that he has seen about a pound of it on a shop counter. A friend told him it was exhibited at the Shrewsbury Show a year or two before the war, that the French call it “orbust,” and that it makes a nice-flavoured preserver. He describes it as “round in shape, the size of a small walnut, colour a bright red like a ripe strawberry.”
The only point that is in debate is whether this fruit is that of a hybrid between the strawberry and the raspberry. A fruit called “strawberry raspberry” has been shown repeatedly of late years. I have myself seen it a good deal larger than my correspondent’s description, and it was the fruit of Rubus illecebrosus. I have inquired of the Royal Horticultural Society, and the secretary writes: “We are all profoundly sceptical as to the possibility of a hybrid between strawberry and raspberry.”
Both plants belong to the natural order Rosaceae, but the strawberry (Fragaria) is a herbaceous plant and the raspberry (Rubus) is a deciduous shrub: they make their fruits differently, the raspberry having its seeds inside the fleshy drupels, while the strawberry bears its seeds on the outside of the fleshy mass which we commonly call the fruit.
Most of the Rubi are deciduous shrubs, but the woody stems of Rubus Illeeebrosus die down to the ground in winter, and its fruit resembles that of a strawberry very closely. The theory of a hybrid is thus easily accounted for.
How to access the Guardian and Observer digital archive
Explore more on these topicsShareReuse this contentncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKSZm7KiusOsq7KklWR%2FcX2WaKqeqF9mhHCvzq6lraqpYrGqrdGyZKysopbEo7HRq7BmqpGor6a%2B0bJkobGSp7alecWrrKKsXWaGcoM%3D