What Is a Pineapple Strawberry?

The pineapple strawberry is a cultivated form of the strawberry that is characterized by an “inverted” color scheme. The strawberries are not red with light nuts – instead, this form of the aggregate fruit has white flesh with red nuts. The pineapple strawberry also differs from its red relatives in terms of taste: As its name already suggests, the aroma of the light strawberry cultivar is slightly reminiscent of that of pineapple.

A forerunner of the pineapple-strawberry emerged as early as the 18th century. However, the white strawberry varieties of the time did not spread on a larger scale. The pineapple-tinged white strawberries available today are based on a cultivar that was developed in the Netherlands at the beginning of the new millennium.

Pineapple strawberries differ from red strawberries not only in taste, but also in their small size. The fruits have a diameter of only about one and a half to two centimeters. Nevertheless, like conventional strawberries, they are good for desserts, fruit salads or to decorate cakes such as our strawberry roulade.

If you want to plant pineapple strawberries in your own garden, plant the plants between the end of July and mid-September in a sunny or partially shaded place in well-drained soil. Seeds, on the other hand, are sown in early spring between January and March. As the plant grows, the aggregate fruits of the pineapple-strawberry are initially green and then slowly turn white. A pineapple strawberry is ripe and edible when the nuts have turned red.

Pineapple strawberries only come onto the market in small quantities and can usually only be bought in specialty shops.