Why Strawberries Turn a Ghostly Shade of White

Researchers unlocked some of the genetic secrets that helped the colorful fruit evolve into so many varieties around the world.

Strawberries are not always red. Fragaria nubicola, native to the Himalayas, can produce a vivid red fruit or a ghostly white one; another species, F. vesca, can produce a white fruit with brilliant scarlet seeds, as well as a conventional red type. What gives some strawberries such a ghostly pallor?

One answer has been uncovered by scientists curious about the humble strawberry’s genetic material. There are numerous species of the fruit, and some sport five times as many chromosomes as others. Strawberry scientists think this means that as the plants evolved, they acquired extra genes that could provide a playground for unusual new traits.

While the core genes kept the day-to-day affairs of the plant running, the extras could be tweaked to yield a new shade of pink, a new hardiness to drought or particularly prickly leaves — whatever the strawberry’s unique environment demanded.