My kids and I seek delicate wild strawberries while walking in jungles, from late spring to early summer. My little son, in his first experience, was very excited and asked me, “Mom, what does a wild strawberry plant look like?”.
I’m a horticultural adviser, and my academic major is Plant Protection. Wild plant identification is one of my hobbies. I love tasting wild fruits, especially wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). Despite their small size, they have an intense flavour. I think the smaller berries pack a lot of sweetness and aroma rather than the large cultivated ones.
If you love the taste of wild strawberries but are concerned about mistaking them for their look-alike plants, join me in this to learn “what a wild strawberry plant looks like”. I will tell you about my experiences and all the things you need to identify wild strawberries. Keep reading.
If you are interested in identifying other berry plants, such as blackberry or huckleberry, I discussed them in my other posts.
Wild Strawberry Plant Looks Like
Come on start our journey with the leaves, before fruiting, they are the first features that attract your attention. Its dark green leaves are trifoliate (every leaf consists of three oval or elliptical leaflets) with serrated edges and a slight texture on the surface. You see the leaves along the stems with an alternate arrangement.
Its small, white flowers give you hope that the delicious fruits will arrive soon. The flowers are around 1 centimetre in diameter with five petals and a yellow centre. You find them on long, slender stalks that rise above the foliage.
And now, its flavorful fruits: The fruits of the wild strawberry plant look like cultivated ones, but they are smaller (less than 2 centimetres in diameter). Its fruits are round or conical berries. You often find them in bright red when riper, although I’ve seen varieties of wild strawberries with darker or lighter shades.
Similar to cultivated strawberries, there are tiny seeds on the surface of the berries that give them a slightly rough texture. About the cultivated strawberries, I’ve planted these seeds and grown new plants, but I’ve never experienced it with wild varieties.
As you know, the wild strawberry plant is a small perennial herb that typically grows close to the ground. Hence, another feature that you may spot is its Runners/ Stolons. Do you know what they are? Runners/ Stolons are thin, elongated stems that creep along the ground and let wild strawberries spread through them. However, the wild strawberries are not typically considered invasive plants.
If you look at them closely, you will spot nodes. A new plant can emerge from every node. So, runners are important for the propagation of wild strawberries and allow them to form dense colonies.
Duchesnea indica: A Wild Strawberry Look-Alike
Do you know there is a wild strawberry look-alike that you may confuse with them? Duchesnea indica (also known as Indian strawberry or mock strawberry) is a wild strawberry look-alike, but don’t be worried because it’s not poisonous.
Wild strawberries are native to many regions of North America, including the United States. While Duchesnea indica is not native to North America, it can be found in various regions of the USA, especially in the eastern and southeastern portions.
Here I want to tell you some of my experiences to distinguish them. The leaves of wild strawberries (Fragaria species) and Duchesnea indica are very similar, although I found the green leaves of wild strawberries darker with a matte texture, whereas Duchesnea indica leaves are lighter green and often have a glossy appearance.
I think the best way to distinguish between wild strawberries and Mock strawberries is by their flowers and fruits. The wild strawberry’s flowers are often white with a yellow centre, while the Mock strawberry produces yellow blooms. In addition, wild strawberries have larger flowers.
About their fruits:
- Wild strawberries produce flavorful (sweet when ripe) berries with a more textured surface.
- Mock strawberries produce dry, tasteless berries (without the characteristic sweetness of true strawberries) with an almost smooth surface.
Another feature that can help you distinguish between wild strawberries and Mock strawberry is their Runners/ Stolons. I found the wild strawberry runners slender and tend to root at the nodes, while the runners of Mock strawberry (Duchesnea indica) are thicker and often do not root readily.
My suggestion:
I think Free online tools can work well in plant identification if you use the best ones. The “Google Lens” is one of the best that I have tested to identify various indoor and outdoor plants, including trees, flowers, ornamental and wild plants. I find it works well with high accuracy. It only takes 2 seconds to identify your intended plant (for example, a wild Strawberry). Working with it is very easy, and you can use it to identify plant diseases too.
How Big Do Wild Strawberries Get?
It is one of the frequent questions that people often ask, and its answer can be useful in identifying wild Strawberry plants. As a general rule, Wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) are smaller than cultivated strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa). I created a table that can be useful in this issue:
| Wild strawberry plant’s size | |
| Its height | 5 to 15 centimeters (2 to 6 inches) height |
| Leaf Size | individual leaflets:
around 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters (1 to 3 inches) long around 1 to 2.5 centimeters (0.4 to 1 inch) wide |
| Fruit Size | typically, less than 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) in diameter
in some varieties, reaching up to 2.5 centimeters (1 inch). |
Conclusion
I tried to answer “What does a wild strawberry plant look like?” By providing details of its appearance along with images of its leaves, flowers, and fruits. I also taught you how to distinguish wild strawberries from Mock strawberries (Duchesnea indica). Did you find this post useful for identifying wild strawberry plants? Do you know of other features that can help us with this issue? Please tell me about your experiences and share your knowledge with my readers below this page.
Elahe Rabiei
Hi, I’m Elaheh. My Academic major is plant protection, and houseplants are my expertise. As a houseplant lover, my house is full of indoor plants and it is my passion to take care of them. Hence, I’m here to share my knowledge and experience about growing healthy houseplants. I am also a plant protection advisor, so feel free to ask me any questions you may have.