Report of the Berry Working Group (Strawberry, Raspberry/Blackberry, Blueberry)

Strawberries are a relatively recently domesticated crop. The most commonly cultivated strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, is a hybrid of the North American F. virginiana and the South American F. chiloensis (Maas 1998). These parental species are still grown in some areas and F. virginiana is the primary wild, sexually compatible relative to the cultivated strawberry. In addition to F. virginiana, F. vesca and its subspecies are also present in the United States. Fragaria x ananassa and F. virginiana readily cross. Introgression of pest resistance traits into the wild strawberry population is likely, as substantial amounts of crop-weed introgression has already occurred throughout the midwest, northeast, and southeast United States (Jim Hancock pers. comm.). Introgression has occurred to the extent that it is difficult to find “pure” populations of Fragariae virginiana in many areas. Strawberries suffer from several limiting diseases, insects, nematodes, and weed problems (Table 1)