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According to Duchesne (1766), the runnerless trait in woodland strawberry was first described by Furetiere in his Dictionnaire printed in 1690. Furetiere underlined the rare occurrence at that time of runnerless strawberry plants. Remarkably, Duchesne (1766) could already confirm the genetic origin of the runnerless trait by analyzing more than 30 plants grown from seeds. He could confirm that all the plants were runnerless, thus providing an early example of a rigorous study aimed at assessing the genetic control of a reproduction mode in a crop species. He recognized the F. vesca origin of the runnerless mutant, named it F. eflagellis, and indicated that it spread from a garden from Burgundy province in France to several gardens in the Paris area. Furthermore, Duchesne observed that runnerless plants had a higher number of branch crowns (lateral shoots that terminated by inflorescences). By identifying the underlying causal mutation, Tenreira et al. (pages 2168–2182) provided new insights into the mechanisms underlying the trade-off between sexual reproduction and vegetative propagation in strawberry, which was first described in the 1600s.

Reproduction from Publications Scientifiques du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelles, Paris. Staudt G. 2003. Les dessins d'Antoine Nicolas Duchesne pour son Histoire naturelle des fraisiers. Editors Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle/Ciref Duchesne, N. (1766) Histoire naturelle des fraisiers Paris: Didot Panckoucke, C.J. © Publications Scientifiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelles, Paris.