Strain

In the general realm of botany, the term has no official ranking status; it refers to the collective descendants produced from a common ancestor that share a uniform morphological or physiological character. A strain is a designated group of offspring that are either descended from a modified plant (produced by conventional breeding or by biotechnological means), or which result from genetic mutation. Within the fig community, the “strain” term has taken on a somewhat different additional meaning, which can be confusing. There can be numerous varieties with the same name. To distinguish between these varieties, a “strain” is appended to the end of the name. These are not just variants of the same variety, but clearly different varieties.