Question: how come strawberries have a hole in the middle of them that looks like they should have a pip inside, but they have seeds all over them on the outside?
The strawberry seeds are those bumpy things on or near the outside! As a strawberry grows, there are more growing cells on the outside of the fruit than near the middle. So if the fruit is big, the inside can’t grow fast enough and causes a hole.
I grow strawberries in my backyard. I think Kieran is right with his answer. I have noticed that in the strawberries that manage to get large enough before being gobbled up by me or the resident blue tongue lizard, the hole in the middle is much larger than in the smaller strawberries.
A few fun facts about strawberries.
– They’re not true berries according to botanists. True berries, such as blueberries and cranberries have seeds inside. The dry yellow seeds on the outside are actually considered to be individual fruits themselves because they hold the seeds of the strawberry plant inside them.
– The strawberry plant is part of the rose family.
– And it is really easy to extract the DNA from strawberries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPGKv53zSRQ You can do it using everyday materials although one of them you’ll need a grown up to help with.
I am submitting something mainly so I can get this question out of my “unanswered questions” list, but I’d say one more thing. Things change in response to pressure. So things evolve because there is some pressure on the thing – mainly something that is making it more difficult for that thing to have babies.
The strawberry has seeds. Those are, in effect, its kids. The idea is that animals eat the strawberries, walk around a bit, and poo them out, thereby distributing the kids widely. You know what I mean. So – think about that hole. Does it make a difference? Probably not, right? Will an animal throw away a strawberry because of the hole and look for another plant? Probably not – strawberries are awesome and it would eat it.
The other possibility is that we, as consumers, don’t like the ones with holes in them and we only buy the ones with no holes. That would, in the end, achieve the same thing. We’d produce (breed) more of the ones with no holes. That’s what we do with flowers all the time. That’s called “artificial selection” because it’s something guided by our preferences.
If the hole doesn’t matter, the strawberries would continue to have the hole, which probably arises in the way Kieran says.
The strawberry seeds are those bumpy things on or near the outside! As a strawberry grows, there are more growing cells on the outside of the fruit than near the middle. So if the fruit is big, the inside can’t grow fast enough and causes a hole.
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I grow strawberries in my backyard. I think Kieran is right with his answer. I have noticed that in the strawberries that manage to get large enough before being gobbled up by me or the resident blue tongue lizard, the hole in the middle is much larger than in the smaller strawberries.
A few fun facts about strawberries.
– They’re not true berries according to botanists. True berries, such as blueberries and cranberries have seeds inside. The dry yellow seeds on the outside are actually considered to be individual fruits themselves because they hold the seeds of the strawberry plant inside them.
– The strawberry plant is part of the rose family.
– And it is really easy to extract the DNA from strawberries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPGKv53zSRQ You can do it using everyday materials although one of them you’ll need a grown up to help with.
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I am submitting something mainly so I can get this question out of my “unanswered questions” list, but I’d say one more thing. Things change in response to pressure. So things evolve because there is some pressure on the thing – mainly something that is making it more difficult for that thing to have babies.
The strawberry has seeds. Those are, in effect, its kids. The idea is that animals eat the strawberries, walk around a bit, and poo them out, thereby distributing the kids widely. You know what I mean. So – think about that hole. Does it make a difference? Probably not, right? Will an animal throw away a strawberry because of the hole and look for another plant? Probably not – strawberries are awesome and it would eat it.
The other possibility is that we, as consumers, don’t like the ones with holes in them and we only buy the ones with no holes. That would, in the end, achieve the same thing. We’d produce (breed) more of the ones with no holes. That’s what we do with flowers all the time. That’s called “artificial selection” because it’s something guided by our preferences.
If the hole doesn’t matter, the strawberries would continue to have the hole, which probably arises in the way Kieran says.
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