What a sweet discovery! Farmer Mr. Koji Nakao from Fukuoka, Japan contacted Guinness World Records when he found an unusually large strawberry during harvest.
Weighing in at a whopping 250 g (8.82 oz) with an approximate height of 8 cm (3.15 in), length of 12 cm (4.72 in) and circumference of 25 to 30 cm (9.84 to 11.81 in), evidence of the mutated fruit was submitted to the GWR team in Tokyo.
Mr. Nakao wanted his daughter to be the first person to taste the strawberry - which she did with enthusiasm. Commenting in the video below, she proclaims the fruit to be "oishii,” which means “it’s delicious”.
Mutations can occur for a variety of reasons, for example, when frost damage affects to the flowers of the strawberry plant. In this case, multiple berries have grown and fused together to form one single large strawberry. A similar natural phenomena can occur in giant sized tomatoes, resulting from a mutated blossom that growers refer to as a mega-bloom.
Finding fame for his strawberry in local news and TV Mr Koji's extraordinary and unusual fruit, a Japanese variety called Amaou, now holds the Guinness World Records title for heaviest strawberry. Perhaps most impressive of all is the fact that the fruit has broken a long standing record held for over 30 years. The previous record holding strawberry weighed 231 g (8.14 oz) and was grown by G. Andersen of Folkstone, Kent, UK in 1983.
