A wild strawberry plant growing along a dirt road, in the Alleghenies, photograph by the Author.
It
is almost wild strawberry season!
Mmmm...I love wild strawberries!
There
are two types of strawberry plants that you might encounter in the woods this
time of year, the Wild Strawberry, fragaria virginiana, which is the
species of strawberry that is native to North America, and the Woodland
Strawberry, fragaria vesca, that was
originally native to Eurasia, but is now widespread in North America. It is thought that the Latin genus name “fragaria”
is from the Latin word “fraga”, which is from “fragrans”, for the
fragrant smell of the fruit1.
Both strawberry plants look similar and in fact both are found throughout
most of the provinces of Canada and throughout most of the United States2.
The woodland strawberry is found most
often in hardwood and mixed forests, in swamps, and even on damp ledges. The wild strawberry is a known as a pioneer
plant and is found in a wide variety of habitats, but most often it is found in
sunny areas that have been disturbed either by plowing, lumbering or fire3. You will often find them along a dirt road,
or a rail line. Interestingly, the wild strawberry
and the woodland strawberry cannot hybridize with each other because they are genetically
incompatible and that is why they can share the same range and yet remain
separate4.
So
how do you know which type of strawberry you found, woodland or wild?
A wild strawberry plant found near Freedom, in Cattaraugus County, New York. Note how the unripe fruits are round and not conical. Photograph by the Author.
The
wild strawberry is the most common type of strawberry, so when in doubt that is
probably what you have found. Both the
wild and woodland strawberry plants flower from April to June, depending on how
far north in their range the plants are found5, and unfortunately,
their blossoms are similar and are not much use in determining which is
which. However, if you find a plant with
fruit on it, then it is easier to tell them apart, since the fruit of woodland
strawberry is more conical in shape and the seeds stick out of the surface of
the berry. The fruit of the wild
strawberry is more round, and the seeds are imbedded into the berry. If there is no fruit on the plant, you can still
tell them apart by looking at the tip of the leaf. The central leaf tooth of the woodland
strawberry is about the same size as the adjacent teeth. The central leaf tooth of the wild strawberry
is smaller and shorter than the adjacent teeth.
A wild strawberry plant found near Ellicottville, in Cattaraugus County, New York. Note how the central tooth on the end of the leaf is smaller than the other teeth, this shows it is a wild strawberry. Photograph by the Author.
As
an aside, over the years I have noticed that unless there is fruit on them,
most people can’t identify wild strawberry plants. In fact, a lot of people, when they see a
wild strawberry plant, ask me if it is poison ivy, because it has three leaves.
An old saying that can help you identify poison ivy but remember, not all plants that have three leaves are poison ivy! Graphic by the Author.
First,
let me assure you that while poison ivy does have three leaves, not every
three-leafed plant is poison ivy, the old saying above notwithstanding.
Poison ivy, photograph by the Author.
It
takes more than simply having three leaves to make a plant, poison ivy and the
excerpt from The Woodsman’s Journal Online Field Guide, below, will help you
correctly identify this poisonous plant.
For more information on poison ivy, read “Poison Ivy: “Leaves of Three,
Let It Be” ©”, HERE.
An excerpt from The Woodsman’s Journal Online Field Guide, graphic by the Author.
A wild strawberry plant growing along a dirt road, near Ellicottville, New York, photograph by the Author.
So,
go one out into the woods and enjoy those delicious red strawberries, either
the wild or the woodland variety! And don’t forget to come back next week and read “Survival
Survey, Don’t Be Like Most Americans ©”, where we will talk about what most
Americans know about the wilderness and survival, and it ain’t much!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 From
“Fragaria virginiana”, by Missouri
Botanical Garden
2 It is thought that the woodland
strawberry, fragaria vesca,
was introduced in the early years of the European colonization into North
America. Today, the woodland strawberry
is found in the southern parts of Canada and in all U.S states except Alaska,
Nevada and in a strip across the southeastern states from Kansas east and south
to Florida. The wild strawberry, fragaria
virginiana, is even more common and is found in all the Canadian provinces
and in U.S. states except Hawaii.
The distribution of the Woodland Strawberry, fragaria vesca.
From
“Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)”, by Mark
Jaunzems, HERE
3
“The wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana), a native of eastern North
America, is a pioneer plant that thrives where trees and other vegetation have
been cleared or burned. Such an
environment was prevalent here before widespread European settlement. In landscapes with no human influence, fires
set by lightning quickly eliminated trees and brush. Indians frequently burned the groundcover
around their villages to make hunting and traveling easier.
When
European settlers arrived and began farming, they often abandoned their
agricultural fields after the soil nutrients were depleted, a practice that
also encouraged a strawberry-friendly environment. Early travelers and writers, such as William
Bartram, described locations with hundreds of acres of strawberries that
flourished in these favorable conditions.”
From
“How Our Native Strawberry Became World-Famous”, R. Kelly Coffey
4
The woodland strawberry is a diploid with 2 sets of chromosomes and wild strawberry
is an octoploid with 8 sets of chromosomes.
From
“European Woodland Strawberry by, John Hilty.
5
Interestingly Mark Jaunzems writes that the time to look for flowering
strawberry plants is at the same time as the peak blooming time of the common
dandelion, who knew!
From
“Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)”, by Mark
Jaunzems
Sources
Coffey,
R. Kelly; “How Our Native Strawberry Became World-Famous”,
The Appalachian Voice, [© 2021 Appalachian Voices], https://appvoices.org/2002/06/01/2917/,
accessed June 3, 2021
Hilty, John; “European Woodland Strawberry”,
[© 2003-2019 by John Hilty], https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/eur_wdstrawb.html, accessed June 3, 2021
Jaunzems, Mark; “Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria
vesca L.)”, United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/fragaria_vesca.shtml, accessed May 31, 2021
Missouri Botanical Garden; “Fragaria virginiana”, http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=291715#:~:text=Fragaria%20virginiana%2C%20commonly%20called%20wild,forming%20large%20colonies%20over%20time, accessed May 31, 2021
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