Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WILD STRAWBERRY

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Fragaria virginiana Duchesne

Pottawatomie County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-10 inches

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Stems:

Stemless.

Leaves:

Basal, long-stalked, 3-foliolate; leaflets elliptic to obovate, to 2 inches long, dark green, firm, sparsely pubescent to nearly glabrous above, glabrous to silky-hairy below; margins coarsely toothed with topmost tooth usually shorter and narrower than adjacent lateral teeth.

Inflorescences:

Corymb-like, few- to several-flowered, terminal, on hairy flowering stalks shorter than leaves.

Flowers:

Perfect or imperfect, about 1 inch wide, pistillate flowers smaller than staminate; sepals 5, up to 2/5 inch long, green, alternating with 5 leaf-like bracts that are similar in size; petals 5, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, white; stamens 20-40, in 3 whorls; pistils numerous, on a hemispheric to conical receptacle.

Fruits:

Red berries, 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter, fleshy, with numerous tiny, yellowish brown achenes in pits on berry surface.

Habitat:

Open prairies, pastures, old fields, roadsides, and margins of woods, on moist to well-drained soils.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Many Native American tribes ate the fruits.

Comments:

Wild strawberry forms colonies by rhizomes and stolons. Our cultivated strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duchesne) is a hybrid between Fragaria virginiana of North America and Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Mill., a native of the west coasts of both South and North America.

Wild strawberry