Wild strawberry

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Wild strawberry

Wild strawberry leaflets

Wild strawberry

Wild strawberry flowers and leaf

Wild strawberry flower

Wild strawberry

Morphology

Stem

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.

Inflorescence

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

Flower

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.

Fruit

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

Ecology

Habitat

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

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Many Native American tribes ate the fruits.

Additional Notes