Indian or Mock Strawberry ©

 

 

My family and I were eating a picnic dinner, when my son asked me if the plants in the pot on the picnic table were wild strawberries.  Because of the shape of their leaves, I had thought they were back when I had gathered them from the wilder edges of my yard and saved them from the lawnmower.  But when I took a closer look at the fruit, I wasn’t so certain, since it didn’t look quite right, especially with those little bumpy, tentacle like things!

 

And when I cut it in half, it looked even less like a strawberry.  That is when I remembered that its flowers were yellow, not white like those of the wild strawberry, fragaria vesca.

 

So, “what the heck is this plant, and are the fruits edible”, I wondered?

 

It turned out to be a “Indian Strawberry” or as it is also known “The Wild Indian Strawberry”, the “Mock Strawberry”, the “False Strawberry”, or the “She Mei”, and in Latin it is “potentilla indica”.  It is a member of the rose family and is native to southeast Asia, though it has been introduced to many other areas, both as a medicinal and as an ornamental plant.  It is now naturalized in many parts of the world but is considered invasive in some regions of the United States and Canada. 

 

Indian Strawberries are edible, though they are not delicious like wild strawberries, being spongy and rather tasteless.  However, the fruit of this plant is eaten by deer, birds, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and other rodents. 

 

While humans might find Indian Strawberries to be rather bland, historically they have been held to have important medical benefits.  According to modern researchers, extracts of indian strawberries show antioxidant, antibiotic, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.  Its fruit is also used as a fever reducer (febrifuge), a tonic, and in eye infections, and a water extract of the leaves has also been used as anthelmintic to expel parasitic worms (helminths) and other internal parasites. 

 

The fruit contains fructose, protein and vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin D, and iron.  The fresh leaves can be used as a pot or cooking herb.  The fresh leaves can be crushed and applied externally as a medicinal poultice, to treat boils, abscesses, burns, weeping eczema, ringworm, snake or insect bites and traumatic injuries.

 

So, now we all know a little more about the Indian Strawberry and I am really glad that I saved these plants from the lawn mower.

 

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!

 

 

Sources

 

Liaqat, Muhammad, Ullah Kakar, Ihsan, Akram, Muhammad, Hussain, Shahzad, Ullah Kakar, Mohib, Ahmad, Nadeem, and Faryal, Rani; Antimicrobial and phytochemical exploration of Duchesnea indica Plant, Plant Cell Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, 22(49&50), page 74-85, September 2021, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354339657_ANTIMICROBIAL_AND_PHYTOCHEMICAL_EXPLORATION_OF_Duchesnea_indica_PLANT, accessed July 13, 2024

 

O’Brien, Meghan; “Indian Strawberry”, December 2006, [© Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY 2002-2004], https://www.bellarmine.edu/faculty/drobinson/IndianStrawberry.asp#:~:text=It%20is%20used%20in%20the,insect%20bites%20and%20traumatic%20injuries, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Sprout, Susan; “Underfoot: Mock Strawberry or Indian Strawberry”, November 8, 2022, https://npcweb.org/underfoot-mock-strawberry-or-indian-strawberry/#:~:text=Potentilla%20indica%2C%20previously%20known%20as,makes%20a%20great%20ground%20cover, accessed July 11, 2024

 

USDA; “Duchesnea indica (Andrews) Teschem, Indian strawberry”, https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=DUIN2, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “coupes transversale et longitudinale du fruit du fraisier des Indes (Potentilla indica)”, by ruizo, June 9, 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fraisier_dinde_fruit_coupe.jpg, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Flower of Fragaria vesca, east Bohemia, Czech Republic”, by Karelj, April 2011, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fragaria_vesca_Jahodn%C3%ADk_obecn%C3%BD_1.jpg, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Fragaria vesca: English: Woodland Strawberry, Wood Strawberry”, by Walter Siegmund, May 18, 2010, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fragaria_vesca_5044.JPG, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Scheinerdbeere (Potentilla indica) in Saarbrücken”, by AnRo0002, August 16, 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140816Potentilla_indica2.jpg, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Tashkent botanical garden”, by Mrshaxas, May 21, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Potentilla_indica_(1).jpg, accessed July 11, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) in a garden in Bamberg”, by Reinhold Möller, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Walderdbeere_Frucht-20210617-RM-124006.jpg, accessed July 11, 2024