Strawberries are actually part of the rose family, making them cousins to roses, apples, and cherries.

Scientists place strawberries in the Rosaceae family, which is a massive group of plants with over 4,800 different species. This family includes many of the things we love to eat, like peaches, plums, and almonds. Even though a strawberry looks nothing like a red rose in a vase, they share a very similar DNA and body structure.One of the biggest clues is the flower. Most plants in the rose family have flowers with five petals and many tiny pollen-producing parts called stamens arranged in a circle. If you look at a strawberry blossom in a garden, it looks almost identical to the flower of a wild rose bush. They also both grow using 'runners,' which are long stems that crawl along the ground to start new plants nearby.The smell is another big giveaway. Researchers at the University of Florida found that strawberries have over 350 different scent molecules. Some of these molecules, like one called linalool, are the exact same ones that give roses their famous floral perfume. This is why a field of ripe strawberries smells so incredible.Even though strawberries and roses took different paths millions of years ago, they still share the same weaknesses. Both plants often get the same types of garden diseases, like powdery mildew. Because they are so closely related, farmers often use similar tricks to keep both roses and strawberries healthy and growing strong.