A Multistate Comparison of Native Octoploid Strawberries from North and South America

Abstract

<jats:p>An elite group of 38 strawberry accessions representing all subspecies of the beach strawberry [<jats:italic>Fragaria chiloensis</jats:italic> (L.) Miller] and the scarlet strawberry (<jats:italic>F. virginiana</jats:italic> Miller) was planted in a replicated design at five locations across the United States, and evaluated for plant vigor, flowering date, runner density, fruit set, fruit appearance, and foliar disease resistance. Considerable genotyp× location interaction was observed for many of these traits. However, a few genotypes were impressive at all locations including PI 551735 (FRA 368) with its unusually large, early fruit, and PIs 612486 (NC 95-19-1), 612493 (Frederick 9), and 612499 (RH 30), which were very vigorous and had unusually good fruit color. Genotypes that were superior at individual locations included PIs 551527 (FRA 110) and 551728 (Pigeon Pt.) in Maryland for their large fruit, and PI 612490 (Scotts Creek) in Oregon which had extremely large fruit, superior color, firmness, and flavor. The PIs 612495 (LH 50-4), 612498 (RH 23), and 612499 (RH 30) performed well as day neutrals at multiple sites.</jats:p>

Reconstruction of the Strawberry, Fragaria ×ananassa, Using Genotypes of F. virginiana and F. chiloensis

“…1). This value far exceeded the weight of its progenitors found in other studies: Frederick 9 (1.9 g), LH 50-4 (2.1 g), Scotts Creek (3.2 g), and 2 MAR 1A (1.8 g) (Hancock et al, 2001c). Clearly, genes for large fruit are carried in small-fruited, native genotypes.…”

“…We also intend to generate a new family of wild F. virginiana · F. virginiana crosses to better capture the available diversity. We feel that we have represented F. chiloensis well with the inclusion of the South American material and Scotts Creek from California, but new F. virginiana clones have emerged that warrant testing as reconstruction parents (Hancock et al, 2001c(Hancock et al, , 2003. These include F. virginiana ssp.…”

“…Recently, we selected an elite group of 38 wild strawberry accessions that appeared to be horticulturally superior and represented a wide range of the natural diversity found in F. chiloensis and F. virginiana (Hancock et al, 2001a(Hancock et al, , 2001b(Hancock et al, , 2001c. These genotypes were evaluated in five different states in the United States for a number of characteristics, including plant vigor, flower number, flowering date, harvest date, runner density, fruit weight and color, seed set, and foliar disease resistance.…”

Variation in the Horticultural Characteristics of Native Fragaria virginiana and F. chiloensis from North and South America

“…The early flowering of F. chiloensis ssp. lucida was a surprise, as in a previous field study, representatives of this species were much later than most genotypes of F. virginiana (Hancock et al, 2001). Perhaps in the milder greenhouse environment they remained more active during the winter than F. virginiana, and as a result were able to develop more rapidly in the spring.…”

“…The previous studies have been conducted on single species or subspecies under a wide range of greenhouse and field conditions, and as a result, patterns of variation among the various taxa cannot be directly compared. We recently evaluated a limited collection of elite native clones from both species at five locations across the United States, and found significant variation among taxa for percentage bed fill, foliar disease incidence, fruit weight and flesh color (Hancock et al, , 2001. Herein, we describe a much more comprehensive greenhouse screen of 258 wild strawberry genotypes from North and South America.…”