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Natural
History Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) Richard Hebda INDEX for Native Plants This text was originally published in Coastal Grower (formerly The Island Grower) in Victoria, British Columbia. For subscription information, please call Susanne Steele at the Coastal Grower at 250-478-0825. More and more people crave wild foods... a taste experience out of the ordinary. Of the wild foods wild berries rank as most popular and of the berries the strawberry must reign supreme for flavour. British Columbia has strawberries throughout and the most abundant and tasty of our three native species is wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana. Like many wild and cultivated fruits, wild strawberry belongs to the Rose Family (Rosaceae). These perennial herbs form loose bluish green carpets speckled by clean white flowers. Wild strawberries arise from short thick rootstocks anchored to the ground by tough wiry roots. Long purple-, red- or brown-tinted stalks bear three-parted leaves 5 -15 cm (2-6") above a fibrous crown. Large teeth line the edge of the often bluish green leaflets. The terminal tooth of each leaflet is usually shorter (smaller) than or equal to adjacent teeth. This characteristic is often enough to distinguish wild strawberry from wood strawberry (Fragaria vesca) whose terminal tooth is larger and longer than adjacent teeth. Horizontal runners, called stolons, arch from the parent plant. Where they touch down, a new daughter plant develops. Several white flowers, about 2.0 - 3.0 cm (0.8-1.4") across, perch atop a flexible hairy stem. Small leafy sepals and bracts form a ring at the base of each flower. Within this cup are five bright white rounded petals. At the base of the petals, a whorl of stamens encircles the raised swollen end of the stem, a structure technically called the receptacle. The swollen receptacle sports tiny yellow and green pistils, like pins protruding from a pincushion. As the fruit develops, the receptacle swells even more presenting the seeds as little pips on its surface. The mature receptacle is the delicious, though small (about 1.5 cm across), fruit sought by wild foragers. You can find wild strawberry almost everywhere in British Columbia except the Queen Charlotte Islands, though it is much more common in the interior than along the coast. It occurs throughout much of the U.S. and the southern half of Canada too. Almost any open habitat except bogs support wild strawberries. But the most favoured habitat has to be the open roadside where clearing and scraping have created an ideal environment. Wild strawberries are easily grown in the garden from offsets or daughter plants found at the end of the horizontal runners. Simply cut the runner between the mother plant and daughter plant, carefully remove the daughter plant from the soil and replant with the root crown at the same level as it was when you removed it. The best time to establish the plants is during the moist season from fall to early spring. For best results, plant in a loose soil rich in organic matter or humus. To develop a continuous strawberry carpet, mulch well keep the weeds pulled. You might want to combine the berries with native bulbs such as nodding onion (Allium cernuum) which can poke and flower through the carpet. For the first year or two cultivate the soil around your starter plants so that the runners will root readily. Sow seeds in the fall over a sand-humus mixture as alternate method of propagation. Some wild forms seem to have larger flowers than the norm and deserve special attention. All groups of First Peoples knew and enjoyed the wild strawberry. Mostly people simply ate the fruits wild off the vine. This was especially a fun event for young children. In some areas leaves were harvested and mixed with those of thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) and other plants and steeped into a sweet tea. Wild strawberries make excellent jam but getting enough berries is a challenge. Anti-diarrhoea medicines for children are made from the leaves. Wild strawberries can hardly be beat as delicious fruit. Combined with the ability for vigorous growth on sunny, sandy disturbed sites, they are an ideal edible ground cover substitute for lawns. For more information on native plants contact Richard Hebda at the Royal British Columbia Museum.
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