The flowers of Fragaria × ananassa: Morphology, response to photoperiod, and genetics of induction

The common cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is a healthy and popular fruit throughout the world, but its octoploid genetic structure poses difficulties to breeders, and the plant’s flowering response to temperature and photoperiod has been challenging to predict, resulting in multiple flowering phenotypes throughout the commercial germplasm. This review assesses the morphology and physiology of these phenotypes, the cultural practices which are common to each flowering response, and focuses on recent efforts to map the genetic basis of day-neutrality within F. × ananassa and its progenitor Fragaria vesca. We summarize the recent consensus observing that the genetics of day-neutral flower induction in diploid F. vesca and octoploid F. × ananassa are not orthologous, and discuss the variance of findings regarding determination of day-neutrality in octoploid cultivars.