Strig

This word may not help you grow better tomatoes, but it is relevant. I found it interesting and I hope you do, too.

No one knows where the word strig came from. In England, strig refers to the thread that holds a button to your shirt. It also refers to the tang of a sword blade.

In the plant world, strig refers to the footstalk or pedicel of flowering or fruit-bearing plants, such as currants. A type of peduncle, these tiny stems occur within flower clusters or inflorescences. They provide support for the individual florets. The flowers that grow from a strig are called a sessility.

Female hops flowers are cone-shaped blooms called strobiles. If you sliced one of those flowers in half, you would see a central stem. That central stem is known as a rachis or strig. This strig is what attaches the flower to the bine or pedicel.

​If you open up a fresh fig, you will see lots of hair-like structures. Those are male and female flowers held up with strigs.

Cross-section of female hop flower (PublisAelius) CC BY 3.0

Figs are inverted flowers (Kate Russell)

The cluster of flowers that develop into tangy currants is attached to strigs.

Strigs contain vascular tissue that carries nutrient-rich sap to developing flowers and fruits.

​Now you know.

Currant flower cluster