Wild Strawberry Season is Almost Here©

 

 

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