Mature fruits are bright red and ½–¾ inch in diameter at the widest point. What appear to be “seeds” covering the outside of the fruit are, in fact, achenes, or individual ovaries, each containing a single seed. It is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning the fleshy part is actually the plant’s receptacle, not its ovary and it is made of many ovaries formed from a single flower. They produce many stolons that spread and form roots as they creep along the ground.ĭespite its common name, the fruit is not a true berry. Pedicels, petioles and leaves are finely pubescent. They may be bright green or bluish green and may have a glaucous surface. Leaflets are deltate to obovate, thick, and slightly leathery with coarsely toothed margins. Sepals are bright green and usually in numbers of 10. Stamens are numerous and bear obvious bright-yellow anthers. Wild strawberry’s flowers have five overlapping white to pinkish-white petals. The leaves, which are high in Vitamin C, can be brewed to make tea. They can be eaten right off the plant or collected and used in jams, jellies or pies. Its spring flowers attract bees and butterflies, while its tiny summer fruits are a treat for humans and wildlife. The plant is a larval host for the Gray hairstreak butterfly. In Florida, it occurs naturally only in open fields and woodland edges of Jackson and Leon counties. Wild strawberry is a rare perennial wildflower that occurs throughout much of the eastern United States and Canada. Click on terms for botanical definitions. The fruit tastes like a traditional strawberry with a honeyed edge.Pictured above: Wild strawberry ( Fragaria virginiana) by Keith Bradley. Noted as exceptional by Koanga Gardens with a hint of pineapple in their taste.Ĭan be used as an effective groundcover.
Larger white berries than other white strawberry varieties, produces all year round. Has a sweet, scented bubblegum-like flavour. This ‘wild’ strawberry has small berries on the end of long shoots, bright jewel-red with a gorgeous scent of strawberry Some varieties are grown more for their flowers, which can be a stunning dark pink. My white alpine variety is probably White Soul, with a long fruit shape. They may appear to die off in winter, but will readily re-emerge in spring and set off joyfully across the garden, doing their thing. Like big strawberries, warm sunny days are best to ripen their sharp, tasty fruits.ĥ. They are very hardy to both cold and wet, but they dislike long dry spells.Ĥ. They spread quite readily if given enough moisture.ģ. Healthy and vigorous, as a ground cover or a path edging, alpine strawberries are a good edible option for most of the year but don’t produce huge numbers of fruit like modern hybrids.Ģ.
Wild strawberry plus#
Like many berries, wild types exceed themselves inside the shelter of the tunnel house, provided they are well watered, but they also thrive along banks or paths, as a casually grazed edible treat, something visitors love, plus they extend a ‘layer’ in a food forest at ground level.ĥ THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ALPINE STRAWBERRIESġ. Goodbye mortgage, hello remote living: Buying an untamed 6ha block was this couple's ticket to self-sufficiency If you go far enough out of town, you can still get them in wet newspaper at the dairy, or get them couriered to your door by clicking a button on a site like Trade Me. Good plants are often available at local plant swaps and markets or show days. Imported strawberry plants have been blamed not long ago for being a disease vector so try to encourage New Zealand nurseries by buying your plants within NZ.
Some modern growers have long raised trays of strawberries under cover, but it’s a good idea to find hardy survivor types that will quietly fill a corner if accidentally abandoned. They love a bit of pampering and the fruit should be gently sitting on dry wood chip or straw if it touches the ground at all.
Strawberries are a classic example of getting out what you put in. It’s a sign that all is well with the world if the strawberries are weeded in my home orchard. You really have to tend a strawberry patch. Other good large strawberry varieties for my cold, wet zone, like Tioga, have been good performers in the past, but the fruit all got pinched at dawn by our attendant songbirds. My best performer has been the white alpine strawberry, which ripens to a white colour and out-foxes the birds, who warble nearby waiting for the fruit to turn red. But as an addition to other berries or stonefruit in a midsummer dessert, their tartness sets off the other, sweeter flavours, and they are easier to grow than big strawberries. Alpine strawberries produce smaller and less sweet fruit than their giant strawberry cousins of the holiday punnet.
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