Fragaria

Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the Rosaceae family. Members of this genus bear strawberries. Straw used to be used as mulch in the making of cultivating plants, which could have led to its name. There are about 20 species, and several cultivars of this genus. The most commonly sold strawberries are cultivars of the Garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa.

Classification
There are about 20 species in the Fragaria genus, and these are found throughout the world. The way to classifying Fragaria species is by the number of chromosomes. There are seven types of chromosomes that they all have in common, but have a different polyploidy. Some species are diploid, with 2 sets of 7 chromosomes. Others are tetraploid, with 4 sets of 7, octoploid, 8 sets of 7, or decaploid, 10 sets of 7 chromosomes.


 * Diploid species
 * Fragaria daltoniana (Himalayas)
 * Fragaria iinumae (Russia, Japan)
 * Fragaria nilgerrensis (South and Southeast Asia)
 * Fragaria nipponica (Japan)
 * Fragaria nubicola (Himalayas)
 * Fragaria vesca - Woodland strawberry (Northern Hemisphere)
 * Fragaria viridis (Europe, Central Asia)
 * Fragaria yezoensis (Asia)


 * Tetraploid species
 * Fragaria moupinensis (China)
 * Fragaria orientalis (Eastern Asia)


 * Hexaploid species
 * Fragaria moschata - Musk strawberry (Europe)


 * Octoploid species and hybrids
 * Fragaria × ananassa - Garden strawberry
 * Fragaria chiloensis - Beach strawberry (Eastern Americas)
 * Fragaria chiloensis subsp. chiloensis forma chiloensis
 * Fragaria chiloensis subsp. chiloensis forma patigonica (Argentina, Chile)
 * Fragaria chiloensis subsp. lucida (United States, Canada)
 * Fragaria chiloensis subsp. pacifica (Alaska, Canada, United States)
 * Fragaria chiloensis subsp. sandwicensis (Hawaii)
 * Fragaria iturupensis - Iturup strawberry (Iturup, Kuril Islands)
 * Fragaria virginiana - Virginia strawberry (North America)


 * Decaploid species and hybrids
 * Fragaria × Potentilla hybrids
 * Fragaria × vescana

Several other species have been proposed, but now, some are recongnized as a subspecies of one of the species above.

The Mock Strawberry and Barren Strawberry bear a resemblance to Fragaria, but actually belong to the closely related Potentilla genus. The Strawberry Tree, however, is unrelated.

Ecology
Several species of Lepidoptera, along with other animals feed on Fragaria fruit.

Fragaria are prone towards several diseases. For a list, see List of strawberry diseases.