Fragaria vesca L.

Woodland Strawberry

© SRTurner

Family - Rosaceae

Habit - Perennial forb with short, stout rhizomes.

	Habit.
© SRTurner

Stems - Aerial stems absent. Slender, prostrate to arched stolons present, these rooting at the tip, hairy, usually with 1 scalelike leaf toward the midpoint, this 3-10 mm long, simple, linear to narrowly lanceolate, entire, often wrapped around the stolon at the base.

Leaves - Rosettes at rhizome tips and rooting nodes of stolons, trifoliate, stipulate, long-petiolate, the petioles hairy. Stipules acute, 2 cm long, 5-6 mm broad, glabrous except for villous midvein. Leaflets 1.5-5.5 cm long, sessile or nearly so, thin-textured, the margins relatively sharply toothed, the terminal tooth more than 1/2 as wide as and with the tip usually extended past those of the immediately adjacent lateral teeth, the upper surface sparsely to moderately hairy, bright green to yellowish green, the undersurface moderately to densely silky-hairy, grayish-tinged.

	Leaf adaxial.
© SRTurner

	Leaf abaxial.
© SRTurner

	Leaf abaxial surface.
© SRTurner

Inflorescence - Usually shorter than the leaves at flowering, elongating with age, sometimes appearing racemelike (but the lower flowers on longer stalks than the upper ones), the main stalk with mostly appressed or ascending, fine long hairs.

	Inflorescence.
© SRTurner

Flowers - Sepals 3-5 mm long, usually reflexed at fruiting. Petals 5-7 mm long. Stamens 20-35, some of the outer ones sometimes reduced to staminodes, the anthers yellow. Pistils numerous, densely covering the surface of the obconic or columnar receptacle. Ovary superior, glabrous, with 1 locule, with 1 ovule. Style 1 per pistil, attached laterally near the ovary base, persistent at fruiting, the stigma disc-shaped.

	Caylx and bractlets.
© SRTurner

	Flower.
© SRTurner

Fruits - Achenes, positioned along the surface of the enlarged receptacle, not in pits. A strawberry.

	Fruit.
© SRTurner

Flowering - April - May

Habitat - Mesic upland forests, usually on steep, north-facing slopes, and shaded ledges of bluffs.

Origin - Native to the U.S.

Lookalikes - Fragaria virginiana, which is far more common in Missouri.

Other info. - This species of strawberry is uncommon in Missouri, so far reported from only three counties in a region toward the northeastern portion of the state. It is more common in regions of the country to our west and north. It can be distinuished from the more common F. virginiana by examination of the tips of the leaflets. In F. vesca, the tooth at the tip of the leaflet extends past the other teeth, whereas in F. virginiana this terminal tooth is somewhat indented at the leaflet tip. This difference is subtle but reliable, although several leaflets should be examined.

The species has been subdivided into infraspecific forms. Photos above probably represent ssp. bracteata, whereas in Missori the extant form is ssp. americana. These divisions are subtle and morphological differences minor.

Fruits of both species of Fragaria are edible and tasty. They arguably have more flavor than the gigantic cultivated "berries" found in most supermarkets, which have been bred for size rather than flavor. The commerical "berries" are from the species F. xananassa, which rarely escapes cultivation in Missouri. In any case, the strawberry is technically not a berry, but rather a greatly enlarged, fleshy receptacle covered with tiny achenes, which are the true fruits of the plant.

Photographs taken at Rocky Mountain National Park, Larimer County, CO, 6-23-2018 and 6-15-2020, and near Post Falls, Kootenai County, ID, 5-13-2025 (SRTurner).